A unique meteor hints at an original asteroid lurking in our solar system

Researchers conducted a study of a mysterious meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA estimated that the meteor weighed about nine tons and had a diameter of 13 feet when it was detected prior to impact. After the meteor entered the atmosphere and affected the planet’s surface, researchers went to the Sudanese desert to collect its remains for study. One of those fragments indicates that the meteor may have separated from a massive asteroid roughly the size of the dwarf planet Ceres.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. Meteorite It is known as a salt (AhS) and is made from a substance known as carbon chondrite. The image above is part of the meteor in the wrong color. The space rock formation provides clues to researchers about the parent asteroid that spawned a particular meteor.

The composition of the asteroid could tell scientists how it was formed. In this study, the team analyzed a sample of 50 milligrams of essential fatty acids under a microscope and discovered that it had a unique mineral composition. The minerals in the asteroid have been discovered to have formed at medium temperatures and pressures, higher than what you would expect to find in a typical asteroid but less than what you would find inside a planet.

One of the minerals was particularly confusing and known as an amphibole and required long exposure to water in order to form. This specific mineral was only detected once in another meteorite. The high content of amphibole indicates that researchers studying the severed fragments have separated from an original asteroid that had never placed meteorites on Earth before.

Many brittle minerals are not able to survive upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The researchers in the study also stated that they expect that the asteroid samples purchased from Ryugu by JAXA will detect minerals that rarely appear in meteorites on Earth.