Experts have identified at least two new minerals never seen before on Earth meteor It weighs 14 tons, as found in Somalia two years ago. The minerals were also found in a small wedge of the space rock, which was sent to the University of Alberta, which is working to discover a possible third mineral.
According to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, the two newly discovered minerals were called elaliite and elkinstantonite, but no other details were revealed.
Classified as an “Iron Complex, IAB,” the meteorite is one of more than 350 in that class but is the ninth largest ever found.
The meteorite was also named in honor of the city where it was found, a name also given to the first mineral, and the second was named after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of the Planetary Initiative at Arizona State University and NASA principal investigator . upcoming Psyche mission.
Elkins-Tanton plans to send a probe to examine the mineral-rich asteroid for evidence of how planets formed in our solar system.
“When you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, were different from what had been found before,” Chris Hurd, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the Collection of meteorites at the University of Alberta, it said in a statement.
Hurd added, “That’s what makes this meteorite so exciting. You have two formally described minerals that are new to science.”
The meteorite landed outside the city and was first discovered by camel herders who alerted experts. The space rock is twice as dense as normal Earth rocks and is highly magnetic. Nothing like it has ever been observed on our planet. planet.
