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A meteorite landed on Earth on February 28, when a bright fireball appeared in the sky over the south-west of England, previously reported in Live Science.
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At the time, scientists speculated that some fragments of cosmic stone should have fallen to Earth. In the end, it turned out that one such fragment had fallen on the driveway of a British town house.
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When the residents of the house noticed a black, soot-covered piece of stone on their driveway, they quickly put it in a bag and immediately contacted the British Meteor Observation Network, which in turn contacted the Natural History Museum.
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“For someone who has no idea what it is, saving a meteorite is a welcome move. He quickly put most of the meteorite fragments in a bag on Monday morning. Probably even less than 12 hours after the meteorite fell there. Over the next few days, he found several more meteorite fragments, ”said Ashley King, a museum meteorite researcher.
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It is very important to collect meteorites as soon as possible after they reach Earth, as they can be polluted very quickly by rain or the atmosphere. All the fragments collected weigh almost 300 grams and are the first cosmic stones to be found in Britain since 1991, the museum said in a statement.
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Researching fragments of the meteorite, the museum’s researchers found that it was carbon chondritis, a rare type of meteorite that originated in an ancient asteroid in the early days of the solar system, when the first planets were formed.
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“Meteorites like this are relics of the origins of the solar system. This means that they can reveal to us what the planets are made of. We also think that such meteorites may have brought water to Earth, causing the oceans to form, ”explained Sarah Russell, a museum researcher.
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The meteorite itself is a bit like a piece of coal, but it is much softer and more fragile. The texture shows that the meteorite contains soft clay minerals and once contained water ice. Carbon chondritis meteorites usually contain a mixture of various minerals and organic compounds, including amino acids that are the basis of proteins.
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