“This meteorite is special because it fell on a frozen lake and recovered quickly. It was too old. We can see that the minerals didn’t change much and it was later discovered that it contained a rich amount of extracellular organic compounds, “Heck said in a statement. “It is possible that these types of organic compounds were transported to Earth by meteorology and may have contributed to the elements of life.”
Researchers determined that it was a rare H4 chondrite alka, representing only four percent of the people found on Earth. Analysis found that it contained more than 2,600 different organic compounds that were still intact despite the intense heat generated during the eruption. They also found that it broke away from its parent planet 12 million years ago, forming 4.5 billion years ago.
“Many scientists could have examined the rock using a variety of techniques, so we have unusually comprehensive data for a meteorite,” Heck said.
While the meteorite was as clean as it could land on Earth, scientists are particularly concerned about getting their hands on their original specimen from a resource-space. This is going to happen in 2023. When NASA’s Osiris-RX spacecraft is set to successfully return to Earth Caught And Stowed Part of Regulith from the planet Benu.
