Researchers conducted a study on the subject of a mysterious meteorite that exploded over Sudan in 2008. The meteorite is estimated by NASA to weigh nine tons and be about 13-feet in diameter, when it was first seen in effect. After the meteorite entered the atmosphere and affected the planet’s surface, researchers went to the Sudanese desert to collect the remains of his study. A fragment of it suggests that the meteorite has broken away from the large-sized planet Ceres, which is large.
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. The meteorite is known as Almahata Sita (AHS) and is composed of a material called carbonaceous chondrite. The image above is of a meteorite in the wrong color. The formation of the celestial rock provides clues about the parent asteroids that gave birth to the meteorite given by the researchers.
The makeup of asteroids can tell scientists how the planet was formed. In this study, the team analyzed a 50 mg sample of AHS under a microscope and found that it contained a special mineral makeup. Minerals in asteroids were found to be formed at intermediate temperatures and pressures, which you would expect to find in normal asteroids, but less than what you would find inside a planet.
One of the minerals was particularly surprising and is known as amphibol and has to be exposed to water for a long time to make it. That particular mineral has only been found once in other meteors. The high content of the amphibian indicates that the fragments the researchers are studying have been broken by a parent planet that has never deposited meteors on Earth before.
Many more fragile minerals are unable to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers in the study also said they hoped the asteroid samples bought back from Rayugu by JXA would uncover minerals that would rarely turn into meteorites on Earth.
