Of the 45,000 meteorites found, only 100 weighed 7.6 kg
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ANTARTIKA — A team of scientists has endured inhospitable Antarctic icy desert conditions to recover five meteorite new, including a nearly 17 pound (7.7 kg) monster space rock. The team of scientists includes the Field Museum and University of Chicago researcher Maria Valdes.
Reported from Space, Sunday (22/1/2023), a team of scientists estimated that of the 45,000 meteorites found so far from the Antarctic ice desert, only 100 meteorites weighed 16.7 pounds or around 7.6 kg. “Size doesn’t always matter when it comes to meteorites, and even small micrometeorites can be of great value scientifically, but of course, finding large meteorites like this is rare and very exciting,” Valdes said in a statement.
The team led by Vinciane Debaille, a planetary scientist at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (FNRS-ULB) in Belgium, is the first to explore new potential meteor sites that have been mapped using satellite imagery.
“It’s exciting to have an adventure exploring unknown territory, but we also have to face the fact that the reality on the ground is far more difficult than the beauty of satellite images,” Debaille said in a statement.
The team planned their trip for the Antarctic summer, in late December, but temperatures in the region are still hovering around 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees Celsius). Valdes said at several points during the mission, Antarctica was actually warmer than Chicago.
But the weather felt more extreme for the team due to days spent driving snowmobiles and hiking across the icy fields and spending nights sleeping in tents.
With conditions that are freezing cold even in the middle of summer, Antarctica may seem like an unlikely place for anyone to visit. However, for meteorite hunters like this team, this icy sight offered a unique opportunity. The reason is because Antarctica is one of the best places in the world to hunt for meteorites.
Antarctica is a desert with a dry climate, which reduces the amount of weathering experienced by meteorites. Additionally, in the white snowy landscape, the black hue of these space rocks stands out when they are on the surface of the region.
Conditions in Antarctica even favor finding meteorites that may have sunk beneath the snow and ice. This is because stirring up a glacier moving against rock can re-expose meteorites near the surface.
