England – The meteorite that looked like a “burning fireball” in the skies of the United Kingdom about three years ago underwent a comprehensive analysis that revealed that it had made a brutal journey through space before reaching us.
Scientists said that the Winchcombe meteorite, which fell in a sheep field in the Winchcombe area of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, on February 28, 2021, was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly as it made the brutal journey through space.
Recent analysis of the Winchcombe space rock, named after the city in which it was found, suggests that water may have played a role in its violent journey that lasted millions of years.
Scientists explained that the meteorite in its early days was a dry rock loaded with ice, but over millions of years the ice melted and turned into a ball of clay that was repeatedly broken and reassembled.
The results indicate that the space rock was formed from pieces of other rocks stuck together, in what is known as “clasts” (or scabs).
Dr Luke Daly, from the University of Glasgow, who led the study, said: “We were impressed by the extent of fragmentation of the compactions within the Winchcombe sample we analysed. “If you imagine the Winchcombe meteorite as a jigsaw puzzle, what we saw in the analysis was as if each piece of the same jigsaw had also been cut into smaller pieces, then mixed into a bag filled with the fragments of seven other jigsaws.”
He added: “However, what we have discovered in trying to piece together the jigsaws through our analyses is new insight into the very fine details of how rocks are changed by water in space.” “It also gives us a clearer idea of how it has been subjected to shocks and reshaped repeatedly over its life since it emerged from the solar nebula (the giant interstellar cloud that gave birth to the solar system), billions of years ago.”
The meteorite fell on a trail in the Winchcombe area in 2021. The sample was spotted in the town a few hours after it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. More fragments were found in a sheep field a few days later.
The Winchcombe meteorite belongs to a rare class of rocks known as carbonaceous chondrites. They make up about 3% of all meteorites collected on Earth, and are thought to contain unchanged chemicals from the formation of the solar system more than four billion years ago.
Analyzing these minerals can help scientists find answers to questions such as: How did the solar system develop? And how did the Earth get its water?
During the study, scientists analyzed the mineral grains in Winchcombe meteorite fragments using advanced technology.
Dr Martin Suttle, from the Open University, said: “Each grain is a small time capsule, which together helps us build a remarkably clear view of the formation, repair and change that occurred over millions of years.”
The team said they found that each type of rock in the sample was changed to different degrees due to the presence of water.
The scientists added that this was not only between rock types but also within them. They explained that their analysis indicates that the meteorite “was richer in carbon than previously thought” due to the presence of an “unexpectedly high” percentage of carbonate minerals.
The study was published in the journal Meteoritics And Planetary Science.
Source: Independent
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2024-04-19 16:21:58