A meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 is home to at least two minerals that are not found on our planet. The two minerals were identified by researchers at the University of Alberta, a press release said.
Tons of space material enters the Earth's atmosphere every
day and burn up instantly. Very few actually survive the journey through the atmosphere
and hit the ground, after which these space rocks are referred to as
meteorites.
Large meteorites are rare but do occur, such as the one that
fell near the town of El Ali in Somalia a couple of years ago. The celestial
piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes) and yet is the
ninth-largest meteorite ever found.
Two new minerals in the meteorite
A small piece of the meteorite weighing about 2.5 ounces (70
grams) was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, and the
researchers found two minerals that are not found on Earth. "Whenever you
find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the
chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found before," said
Chris Herd, a professor at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as
well as the curator of the Meteorite Collection at the university.
Working with researchers at the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA) and California Insitute of Technology, Herd has classified
the meteorite as an Iron IAB complex, which is composed of meteoritic iron and
silicate inclusions.
Herd's research was also aided by the Electron Microprobe
Laboratory at the University of Alberta, where an initial analysis revealed the
presence of the two minerals. Research of this type usually takes a
considerable amount of work to confirm the presence of a new mineral. However,
in this case, the two minerals identified had been synthetically created
before, so the researchers could match their compositions quickly to confirm
their discovery.
Interestingly, there is a third new mineral that is under
consideration, and its presence can only be confirmed after further analysis of
completed.
Names of the minerals
The two minerals confirmed so far have been dubbed elaliite
and elkinstantonite. The first name comes from El Ali, the nearest town where
the meteorite was found. The second, however, is a dedication to Lindy
Elkins-Tanton, a researcher at Arizona State University's School of Earth and
Space Exploration.
"Lindy has done a lot of work on how the cores of
planets form, how these iron-nickel cores form, and the closest analog we have
are iron meteorites," Herd added in the press release. "So it made
sense to name a mineral after her and recognize her contributions to
science."
Elkins-Tanton is the principal investigator of NASA's
upcoming Psyche mission that will send a probe to the Psyche, a mineral
asteroid, in a bid to understand the origins of the planets of our solar
system.
However, this could also be the last we hear about the El
Ali meteorite since the celestial rock has reportedly been moved to China in
search of a potential buyer. If sold, whether the buyer will allow further
samples to be taken for scientific analysis remains unknown for now.