Planetologists from the University of Munster (Germany) published a report with the first results of a study of a meteorite, which fell in the town of Flensburg last September. It turned out to be a small planetesimal of the times of the early Solar system.
The study report is published on the website of the University of Munster. Scientists studied the sky stone, which in mid-September 2019 was discovered in its garden by a resident of Flensburg. The mass of this object is only 24.5 grams.
However, he literally made a noise. Residents of not only Flensburg, but also many nearby settlements heard a loud explosion in the sky and watched a bright ball of fire cut through the atmosphere. Hundreds of people became eyewitnesses of the event.
It should be noted that specialists from 15 universities and research institutes in Germany, France and Switzerland helped to study the stone covered with a black melted crust.
The meteorite was named Flensburg, in honor of the place of the fall. The first research results show that it belongs to an extremely rare type of carbon chondrites. The stone contains minerals, including silicates and carbonates.
It is known that such minerals were formed in the presence of water on small planetesimals at an early stage in the existence of our solar system. Therefore, scientists consider such meteorites as possible building blocks that delivered water to the Earth.
According to co-author of the work Addi Bischoff, this is the first recorded case of a meteorite of this class in Germany. His age may be about 4.56 billion years or even exceed it. That is, this object is actually the same age as the Earth. Analysis showed that it contained liquid water. That is, such meteorites could really deliver water to our planet at an early stage of its existence.
Investigation of the facility will continue. Perhaps this meteorite is a fragment of a larger asteroid. Its study will allow scientists to get an idea of the processes of formation of the first solids, accretion and evolution of small bodies and planets in our solar system.
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