Tag Archive for 'Chondrite'

This image shows Watson 021, a single H7 ordinary chondrite, weighing 135 g. The sample has a large crack, lined with alteration minerals, that runs down its middle and only one third of its fusion crust remains intact. This meteorite shows near complete oxidation of its reduced metal and sulfide phases making this a W4 chondrite. Watson 021 is extensively shocked, exhibiting globular silicate metal emulsions and shock veins that crosscut the sample. Tait et al found that microbial communities in samples of Nullarbor Plain soil are more diverse than those in Watson 021 and other meteorites, which are highly uniform in their species evenness and species richness. Image credit: Tait et al, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01227.

Research Opens New Way to Understand Possible Martian Life through Meteorites

Jul 20, 2017 by News Staff

New research from Monash University and the University of Queensland has added a new dimension to understanding life on the Red Planet with the discovery...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Finds Solid Organic Matter in Dust Particles from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 8, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s Rosetta orbiter has made the first unambiguous detection of solid organic matter in dust grains ejected by comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

Chondrules in meteorites are the remnants of early protoplanetary collisions, scientists say. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Meteorites are Byproducts, not Building Blocks

Jan 15, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of scientists co-led by Prof Maria Zuber of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Prof Jay Melosh of Purdue University, meteorites...

Magnetic field lines weave through the cloud of dusty gas surrounding the young Sun; in the foreground are asteroids and chondrules, the building blocks of chondrite meteorites. Image credit: Hernan Canellas / MIT Paleomagnetism Laboratory.

Strong Magnetic Fields Recorded in Meteorite Provide Clues to How Early Solar System Evolved

Nov 17, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists working on a primitive meteorite known as Semarkona have found evidence that the protoplanetary disk of the early Solar System was shaped by...

In this illustration of the early Solar System, the dashed white line represents the snow line - the transition from the hotter inner Solar System, where water ice is not stable (brown) to the outer Solar System, where water ice is stable (blue). Image credit: Jack Cook / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Study Sheds More Light on Origin of Earth’s Oceans

Oct 31, 2014 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers led by Dr Brian Monteleone of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Earth’s oceans have likely existed since...

This is an artist's depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

New Evidence for Protoplanet Theia Found in Moon Rocks

Jun 6, 2014 by News Staff

A study published in the journal Science provides new evidence that the Moon formed from the catastrophic collision of the proto-Earth with a hypothetical...

This photograph shows the meteor streaking through the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia. Image credit: M. Ahmetvaleev.

Scientists Shed More Light on Chelyabinsk Meteorite

Nov 7, 2013 by News Staff

An object that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February 2013 initially measured 20-m across and was about 4,452 million years old, according to three...

Fragments of the Sutter's Mill meteorite collected by NASA astronomer Dr Peter Jenniskens two days after the fall (NASA / Eric James).

Scientists Find Unique Extraterrestrial Organic Molecules in Sutter’s Mill Meteorite

Sep 11, 2013 by News Staff

Arizona State University researchers reporting this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have found that fragments of the Sutter’s...

This is a fragment of the Chelyabinsk (Laboratory of Meteoritics, Vernadsky Institute, Russia).

Chelyabinsk Meteorite May Have Collided with Another Body in Solar System

Aug 27, 2013 by News Staff

According to a team of Russian scientists reporting today at the Goldschmidt conference in Italy, the Chelyabinsk meteorite either collided with another...

Chondrules are visible as round objects in this electron image of a polished thin section made from the Bishunpur meteorite from India; the dark grains are iron-poor olivine crystals (Steven Simon)

Scientists Solve Mystery of Glassy Spherules in Chondrite Meteorites

Jul 9, 2013 by News Staff

Researchers have proposed a radical solution to a cosmochemical mystery that has baffled scientists for over a century: how numerous small, glassy chondrules...

Members of the Belgo-Japanese meteorite team with an 18kg meteorite found during a field trip on the Nansen Ice Field, 140km south of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (© International Polar Foundation)

Big Meteorite Found in Antarctica

Mar 1, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists working at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station have found an 18 kg chondrite embedded in the East Antarctic ice sheet. Members of...

Sutter’s Mill Meteorite Identified as Rare Carbonaceous Chondrite

Dec 25, 2012 by Sergio Prostak

U.S. scientists have discovered that a meteorite that fell over El Dorado County in northern California this past spring was the rarest type known to have...

Carbonaceous Chondrites as Source of Earth’s Water

Jul 16, 2012 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study led by Carnegie Institution of Washington has suggested that most of the volatile elements on Earth – which include hydrogen, nitrogen,...