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If you’ve ever wondered where on earth water comes from, new research meteorites The plane that crashed into a family’s front yard in England last year may be the answer to this question.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum of London and the University of Glasgow in Scotland, He worked on a meteorite located in the town of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.To discover that it contains water similar to that found on Earth.
“This is a crystal clear window into our early solar system,” Luke Daly, lecturer in planetary geology at the University of Glasgow and co-author of the study, told CNN on Thursday.
Posted in Science Advances magazine Wednesday’s study reveals that extraterrestrial rocks may have brought vital chemical components such as water to our planet billions of years ago, forming the oceans and all life on Earth.
About 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and the oceans hold about 96.5% of all water. United States Geological Survey.
Imaging and chemical analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite revealed – as it is known – to contain around 11% water and 2% carbon by weight, making it the first of its kind to be found in the UK.
By measuring the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in water, the team found that it was very similar to the composition of water on Earth. According to a press release from the Natural History Museum.
Extracts from the rock also found extraterrestrial amino acids, making it the strongest evidence that water and organic matter were delivered to the planet by asteroids as Winchcombe escaped.
The meteorite was identified as a CM carbonaceous chondrite, a type of stony meteorite containing a high composition of pre-solar components.
It was rescued within 12 hours of its landing with the help of the UK Fireball Alliance, an organization that aims to recover meteorites that have just fallen on the UK, and had little time to be replaced by Earth’s atmosphere.
“We know that everything in it is 100 percent extraterrestrial (that’s including the 11 percent water it contains),” Daly said.
“Most CM chondrites have ‘Earth-like’ water, but these rocks change and degrade within days (or) weeks of being on Earth, and so they may be Earth-like because they absorb rainwater or something else,” he explained.
“The incredibly fresh specimen will remain one of the most pristine meteorites in collections worldwide,” Natasha Almeida, curator of meteorites at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the study, said Wednesday.
Daly described the Winchcombe meteorite as a “lucky” discovery. It was only about the size of a basketball, so if it was moving at a different speed or at a different angle, it would burn completely, he said, adding that “it’s a wonderful collaboration of the UK cosmochemistry network coming together to throw the kitchen sink while examining this rock.”
While this article is the first of many publications on the study of the meteorite, it will keep them busy for years, Daly said. “There is definitely a lot more story and secret in this particular stone,” he added.
