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A new study found that a small part of a 3.5 million year old comet found securely nestled in a meteorite could potentially contain the building blocks of life.
The meteorite was found in the LaPaz ice field in Antarctica and the comet fragment was preserved indoors, protecting it from fires when the space rock penetrated the Earth's atmosphere.
"This gave us a glimpse of materials that would not have survived to reach the surface of our planet by themselves, helping us understand the chemistry of the early solar system," Larry Nittler of the Carnegie Institution for Science explained Slack Sliver's chance trip to Earth.
The meteorite has been nicknamed "LaPaz Icefield 02342" and belongs to "A class of primitive carbonaceous chondrite meteorites with minimal modifications" since its formation there are more than 4.5 billion years apart from the orbit of Jupiter.
Similar meteorites previously discovered contain organic compounds such as water, amino acids and nucleic bases, which are the building blocks of protein and DNA, providing scientists with an incredible insight into the development of the early solar system.
The incredible discovery research suggests that the particles have migrated from the edges of the solar system to the narrower region beyond Jupiter, where the carbonaceous chondrites have formed, giving a new insight into how our solar system works. during the formation of the planets.
"When I saw the first electronic images of the carbon-rich material [inside the meteorite]I knew we were looking for something very rare, "said Jemma Davidson of the Center for Studies of Meteorites at the University of Arizona. "It was one of those exciting times for which you live as a scientist."
Meteorites derive from asteroids and comets and asteroids from our galaxy are formed from the gas and dust that surround the sun. However, they form in different parts of space, which gives them a different composition: comets tend to form farther from the sun and contain more carbon and ice water.
READ MORE: Japanese probe BOMBS old asteroid to look inside
The researchers performed a chemical and isotopic analysis of the material and determined that it probably came from the outer glacial solar system as well as objects from the Kuiper belt, from which many comets originated.
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