Scientists discover in a meteorite that fell in Somalia two minerals never seen before on Earth.
It’s not every day that we discover new minerals, so the team at Professor Chris Herd has reason to celebrate. The team of Canadian researchers explains in a statement that the space rock was discovered in Somalia two years ago, but locals believe it is much older.
The rock bears the sweet name of Nightfall and is said to appear in local poems, songs and dances that date back as far as five generations. Scientists from the University of Alberta examined a 70g fragment of the meteorite. Nightfall weighs 15 tonnes in total making it the ninth largest to fall on our planet, as Professor Herd explained at the Space Exploration Symposium on November 21.
It contains about 90% iron and nickel but scientists have discovered two new minerals which they have called elaliite and elkinstantonite. As explained USA Todaythe names are tributes:
- “elaliite” pays tribute to the fact that the meteorite was unearthed in the El Ali district of Somalia,
- “elkinstantonite” is named after NASA expert Lindy Elkins-Tanton.
“Lindy has done a lot of work on the formation of planetary cores, on the formation of these iron and nickel cores, and the closest analog we have are iron meteorites. So it made sense to give a mineral its name and recognize its contributions to science.“, explains Chris Herd in the press release.
And the surprise does not stop there since there is a third unknown mineral being analyzed. Mineral experts are curious about the “potential uses in a wide range of things in society“.