England, Borneo24.com – Shards of rock were recovered from a fireball lighting up the sky over southern England more than a week ago, falling in the area of the town of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire
A resident first told experts after seeing a pile of charred stones in the corner at the entrance to his home.
Other community members, since then, have disclosed their findings of similar rock fragments.
This is the first incident in the UK after meteor material was last found in Britain 30 years ago.
The researchers were very excited about this finding because of the rarity of this type of rock.
The rock fragments are carbon chondrites (carbonaceous chondrites) – a rocky material that maintains the unchanged chemical from the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.
Dr Ashley King of the Natural History Museum (NHM) said no such rocks had been recorded in Britain before.
“Carbon chondrites are very special because basically they are the remains of the building blocks of our solar system,” he said as quoted by bbc.
“Many contain simple organics and amino acids; some of them contain minerals formed by water – so, all the ingredients are there to understand how you make a habitable planet like Earth, ”he told BBC News.
Thousands of people have reported seeing a blazing light in the sky at 9:54 p.m. local time on Sunday, February 28.
However, most importantly, the incident was also caught in the line of special cameras operated by the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll).
Their information can pinpoint where the debris might have fallen.
“Somewhere north of Cheltenham, towards Stow-On-The-Wold,” he predicted.
It’s like looking for a “needle in a haystack,” but researchers are lucky.
Several meteors fell near the entrance to the Winchcombe residents’ house.
Dr Richard Greenwood was sent to meet Winchcombe residents, who wish to remain anonymous.
“I looked in the plastic bag, and my legs were wobbly. Truly extraordinary. This is a very special meteorite, ”said the Open University researcher.
A search team was immediately dispatched to search the local area for more rock fragments.
And, meanwhile, other homeowners began to inform scientists about his discovery.
In total, there should have been 300-400 grams of material, most of which now belong to the NHM status.
The meteor rock fragments were small – like marble. Prof Monica Grady, also from the Open University, described it like “broken barbecue briquettes”.
“This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen”, he told BBC News.
It is difficult to overstate how important these findings were to the development of British meteorology.
Of the approximately 65,000 meteorites stored around the world, only 1,206 were witnessed by witnesses at the time of the fall, and only 51 were of the type of carbon chondrite.
Because this fireball has been tracked through the camera as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, the rocks have managed to enter Earth’s orbit. This means that the composition will almost certainly be very primitive.
The object originates from the outer belt of the asteroid, and exits toward Jupiter.
“Basically, these rock fragments are part of the Solar System which we think is like having frozen from 4.5 billion years of material,” explains Prof. Sara Russell of NHM.
“It doesn’t have a chance to change at all from pre-planetary time.
“And this will give us insight into what our Solar System was like before the planets were there.”
The American and Japanese space agencies have sent explorers to bring back similar material from the asteroid itself.
But the Winchcombe meteorite would be an almost equally good subject to study, said Dr. Greenwood.
“Yes, it will be affected by a trip through the atmosphere, but it must be very close to original.
“The people at Winchcombe who collected it did so within 12 hours of the fall.
“It’s as good as you will ever get on this earth.”
The last fallen space rock was found in England in 1991 – the so-called Glatton Meteor Rock, because it fell in the village of Glatton near Peterborough.
Arthur Pettifor was in his onion garden when the 10cm rock fell near the fence of his house.
It is likely that more meteor rock fragments at Winchcombe are still waiting to be discovered.
Scientists appeal to people in the region to remain vigilant.
They look for small, blackish stones, or even dark piles of dust.
Anyone who finds what may be a possible meteorite is asked to photograph it at the location of the discovery, recording GPS coordinates, if possible.
The object must then be placed in foil.
And, this time it’s a must, don’t put the magnet near the material.
The reason is, it can destroy important information needed to study the stone.
The research at Winchcombe also involved scientists from the universities of Glasgow, Manchester, Plymouth and Imperial College London. (***)
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