The meteorite discovered in Africa (Photo: Nick Gessler/Duke University)
In a huge meteorite (15 tons in weight) that landed in Africa, two minerals were discovered that had not been seen before on Earth.
The meteorite, the ninth largest ever discovered, was discovered in Somalia in 2020, according to a press release from the University of Alberta.
The minerals were found by Prof. Chris Heard, Curator of the University's Meteorite Collection and member of the University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, who received classification samples cut from the meteorite.
Heard noticed strange particles under the microscope, which he could not identify.
Hurd turned to his colleague, Andrew Lowcock, head of the electron microscopy laboratory there.
Lowcock, who specializes in describing new components, ran some tests and returned to his colleague with an answer: "You have at least two new minerals there," Heard noted in the announcement.
Came to us from another planet.
Imaging (Photo: ShutterStock)
The speed with which the new materials were identified was made possible thanks to the development and synthesis of artificial minerals, which made it easier to identify the "natural" materials from the meteorite, by comparing them to similar materials created by man.
One mineral was named "Elhalite", after the meteorite in which it was discovered, which was nicknamed "El Ali".
The second mineral was named alkinstontonite, after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of the Interstellar Science Initiative at the University of Arizona.
Elkins-Tanton is a Regents Professor and NASA's principal investigator on the "Psychic" mission - a research mission to a mineral-rich asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. In his announcement, Hurd described his colleague's achievements as a miracle, noting that "it made sense to name the mineral after her, and recognize in her contribution to science," Heard said.
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meteorite