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On February 28, citizens of Northern Europe and the United Kingdom saw a meteorite fall to Earth in a fireball. The event is particularly exciting for some experts who believe that the specific and very rare materials of the rock could lead to answer certain questions about the universe.
After the meteorite crossed the sky at nearly 9 miles per second over several countries, some of its pieces were found on an alley in the Cotswolds. Scientists collected around 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of the rare rock from Winchcombe, a small town in Gloucestershire, and experts confirmed that the meteorite was made of the material, carbonaceous chondrite. According to CNN, “the substance is one of the most primitive and intact materials in the solar system and is known to contain organic material and amino acids – the ingredients for life.”
The Natural History Museum in London confirmed that the particles were collected quickly enough and in good enough condition to have the same value as if they were brought back to earth from space.
CNN reports: “The space rock, the museum said, was similar to the sample recently returned to Earth from space by the Japanese mission Hayabusa2, which returned about 5.4 grams of fragments from the asteroid Ryugu, according to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Richard Greenwood is a planetary science researcher at the Open University and was the first scientist to identify the rock. In a statement from the museum, he said: “I was in shock when I saw it and immediately knew it was a rare meteorite and a totally unique event. It’s touching to be the first to confirm to the people standing in front of you that the thudding noise they heard in their driveway at night is actually the real thing.
The museum said there were around 65,000 meteorites on Earth that humans know about, but people saw only 1,206 falling to Earth, and of those, only 51 were made up of carbonaceous chondrite.
The meteorite fell to Earth at 9:54 p.m. GMT on February 28 and was seen by thousands in the UK and Northern Europe. Spectators even recorded footage of the event on cameras and home security devices. The museum said the civilian records, along with the UK Fireball Alliance video, helped scientists find out where the meteor particles could be in the city in order to collect them for research. The recordings also provided scientists with information about the meteorite’s origin in space.
The museum said even more pieces of meteorite could be found in the form of black rocks, piles of small stones or dust in the area. As the meteorite landed on an alley in Winchcombe, additional fragments were collected in the surrounding area.
Ashley King, British researcher and future researcher in the Museum’s Earth Sciences department, said: “Almost all meteorites come to us from asteroids, the remaining building blocks of the solar system that can tell us how planets love it. Earth. form. The opportunity to be one of the first people to see and study a meteorite recovered almost immediately after it fell is a dream come true! “
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