Posted in: 06/07/2022 – 10:22
Researchers have found new types of crystal hidden within tiny grains of well-preserved meteorite dust, after it hit Earth 9 years ago over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region.
On February 15, 2013, an asteroid with a diameter of 18 meters and a weight of 12,125 tons entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 66,950 km / h. Fortunately, the meteorite fragmented about 23.3 kilometers above the city of Chelyabinsk, in southern Russia, scattering parts of it in the vicinity of the area above which it exploded.
The impact was then an opportunity for experts to sound the alarm about the threats that meteorites pose to our planet. The Chelyabinsk meteor explosion was the largest of its kind to occur in Earth’s atmosphere since the Tunguska event of 1908.
In a recent study, researchers analyzed some of the small fragments of space rock left over after a meteorite eruption, known as meteorite dust. Researchers have discovered new types of crystals while examining specks of dust under a standard microscope.
These discovered crystals have distinct properties to the crystal we know on planet Earth. The team suspects it formed under the high-temperature and high-pressure conditions caused by a meteorite crash, although the exact mechanism remains unclear.
In the future, scientists hope to track other samples of meteorite dust from other space rocks to see if these crystals are a common byproduct of meteorite blasts or are unique to the Chelyabinsk meteorite blast.