A strange iron meteorite, now under study, would help unravel the secrets of the early Solar System. A team of scientists in the Ukraine has examined it in detail, discovering the orbit it occupied before crashing into Earth, in the year 2020. He is the first space visitor with that feature to undergo such an examination.
It should be noted that meteorites of that material are unusual and they represent only 2% of the rocks that reach us from space. Therefore, this finding is of great value to astronomers. In this case, according to spaceit is an object with a weight of 14 kilograms and 30 centimeters long.
Experts point out that iron meteorites are fragments of metallic nuclei that melted at the heart of planetesimals, small, solid bodies that existed about 4.5 billion years ago. They are considered to have joined in the remote past to form the planets, including Earth. The examination of these elements is fascinating, since they can teach valuable information about the infancy of the solar system.
An iron meteorite that tells the story of the Universe
The object under examination arrived on our planet on November 7, 2020, impacting in Sweden. On the occasion, witnesses to their arrival saw a shocking glowing ball that lit up the sky before the crash on the earth’s surface.
But what, specifically, is a meteorite? They are small space rocks, whose body is altered when passing through the atmosphere. The fragments of these rocks—those that reach Earth’s surface—are called meteorites.
Jaakko Visuri, an analyst at the Finnish Fireball Network, noted that the aforementioned iron meteorite opens up a great opportunity for research. “It is the first of its kind that offers us the possibility of studying its pre-atmospheric trajectory,” he said in a statement. “It is a unique opportunity to study its mechanism and search for iron-rich deposits in the Solar System,” he added.
Within this framework, a team from the Kharkiv National University in Ukraine also took advantage of the object’s presence here on Earth. An investigation directed by the specialist Irina Belskaya was launched in 2020, with the purpose of studying the metal-rich asteroids, predecessors of meteorites, like the one that hit Sweden. Now, they report a series of relevant conclusions.
An unprecedented exam to learn about our Solar System and plan space trips
The careful study of the iron meteorite by the team led by Belskaya leads to the following valuable data:
- In an unprecedented step, scientists managed to gather clues about the processes that led to their formation. This would help determine how chemical resources are distributed in the Solar System.
- In addition, these investigations would serve to plan future space missions to search for metal-rich asteroids. These are highly valuable objects in the profitable realm of space mining.
- How much potential does that sector have? While minerals are limited on our planet, they are inexhaustible in space. A single case is eloquent: according to NASA, the asteroid Pshyche 16 alone – which orbits between Mars and Jupiter – has a value close to 10,000 trillion dollars due to its reserves of gold, iron and nickel.
- Finally, a better prediction of the behavior of these objects would help to constrain the orbits of other asteroids. That will have major implications for planetary defence, plans already underway — NASA’s DART mission is highlighted — that are intended to deflect the trajectory of objects potentially dangerous to Earth.
“For the first time, we have data on the trajectory of an iron meteorite,” said researcher Maraia Gritsevich at the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute. In this regard, the specialist added that this examination “reveals the celestial paths that he went through before reaching our planet.”
“This achievement not only provides information about the extraordinary journey that the meteorite made. It also contributes to our understanding of the origins and dynamics of iron-rich space objects. Furthermore, it deepens our knowledge of the Solar System in general,” concluded Gritsevich.