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World’s first ‘boomerang meteorite’ discovered in Sahara desert: Rock that left Earth and spent millennia in space has now returned
Astronomers announced the discovery of the very first “boomerang meteorite” – a stone that originated from Earth, was thrown into space and later returned.
The meteorite, NWA 13188, was discovered in the Sahara desert and scientists from the University of Aix-Marseille in France conducted a new analysis and found that it has features of our planet.
The object has a composition found in the Earth’s crust and volcanic rock, as well as elements that only appear when exposed to energetic cosmic rays in space.
Researchers believe the rock was flung into space by an asteroid impact about 10,000 years ago.
The meteorite, NWA 13188, was discovered in the Sahara Desert. Scientists believe it was propelled from Earth during an asteroid impact 10,000 years ago and returned to our planet
Meteorite hunters discovered the rock in question in Morocco in 2018, leading scientists to call it Northwest Africa (NWA).
The analysis, led by Jérôme Gattacceca, determined that the rock has a “general basaltic andesite composition” found in volcanic rocks around the world.
It’s also dominated by plagioclase, an aluminum-containing mineral, and pyroxene, a dark-colored mineral that forms, which scientists said has sparked debate that the “space rock” isn’t a meteorite at all.
However, some elements have changed to light forms, which is only possible if the rock interacts with cosmic rays in space.
One clue that the rock ventured back to Earth from space is that the measured concentrations of these altered elements, known as isotopes, are too high to be explained by Earth-bound processes.
Researchers also identified a fusion crust coating on the rock, which forms when meteorites fly through Earth’s atmosphere and travel to the ground
Gattacceca and his team found detectable isotopic imprints such as beryllium-3, helium-10 and neon-21 in NWA 13188, Space. com reports.
Researchers also identified a fusion crust coating on the rock, which forms when meteorites fly through Earth’s atmosphere and travel to the ground.
“Therefore, we consider NWA 13188 to be a meteorite that launched from Earth and later ascended back to the surface,” Gattacceca shared in a statement.
This scenario is consistent with the latest definition of meteorites: “Material launched from a celestial body that reaches an independent orbit around the Sun or other celestial body, and that is eventually regrowth by the original celestial body, should be considered a meteorite.” .
“Of course, the difficulty would be to prove that this happened, but a terrestrial rock exposed to cosmic rays and having a well-developed fusion crust should be considered a possible terrestrial meteorite.”
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