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The Winchcombe meteorite is now official.
The rock material that fell to Earth in a flaming fireball over the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe in February saw its classification officially accepted.
Details have just been published by the International Meteorological Society in its bulletins database.
Early work by British scientists indicates that the Winchcombe object dates back to the very beginning of the solar system, around 4.6 billion years ago.
This makes him extremely valuable. It is arguably the most important space rock to ever fall and recover in Britain.
The formal classification essentially means that the dark gray to black material picked up in Gloucestershire earlier this year is now absolutely recognized as being meteoritic in nature, and it also means that the name “Winchcombe” can be used to describe it.
The entry in the database is similar to a birth certificate. It tells the story of the fall – seen by numerous cameras and eyewitnesses – and the recovery process, and it includes some initial statements about Winchcombe’s chemistry.
Researchers, led by the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, say the meteorite – comprising 548 g of small stones and powder – is part of the CM2 carbonaceous chondrites.
Winchcombe is said to be “similar to Mighei,” which refers to a particular, or standard, type specimen of a meteorite that was found in Ukraine at the end of the 19th century.
“Carbonaceous chondrites are possibly the oldest and most primitive alien materials that we have to study,” said Dr Ashley King of the NHM.
“They come from asteroids that formed early in our solar system.
“They’re like time capsules. They tell us about the building blocks of our solar system. Obviously, we weren’t there 4.6 billion years ago, and these meteorites are a way for us to see. really what kind of materials were there, and how those materials started to come together to create the planets, ”he told the Science In Action program on the BBC World Service.
Winchcombe is mainly composed of phyllosilicates, or clays. These are minerals that result from silicate rocks when they come into contact with water. H2O is linked to these minerals.
The specific isotopic or atomic signature of this water will be measured and compared to what we know about water here on Earth.
The theory holds that a bombardment from meteorite parent asteroids like Winchcombe could have delivered much of the H20 we now see in our oceans.
The carbon content of Winchcombe is of the order of a few percent. It is in the organic material of the meteorite. It is obviously chemistry that fascinates researchers because it is the basis of life.
We have no traces of biological activity on Earth for nearly a billion years after the formation of the solar system, but studying meteorites such as Winchcombe could give us clues to “raw material” “chemical that allowed life on our planet.
Almost everything that was collected in and around Cotswold town is now in the NHM’s national collection. There is probably only about 100g in private hands.
The analysis suggests that the object that struck the top of the atmosphere on February 28 may have weighed 50 to 60 kg and measured several tens of cm in diameter. Very little of that survived the fiery descent to the ground.
The opening studies on Winchcombe were funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
This made it possible to purchase a special conservation facility to keep the meteorite material in pristine condition.
It comes in the form of a nitrogen-filled box the size of a large dresser.
The box has holes with attached gloves, much like dishwashing gloves but thicker. This means that researchers can use their hands to manipulate meteorite samples without having to re-contact them with air.
“Carbonaceous chondrites like Winchcombe are used to being in the cold vacuum of space, and they start to react with the atmosphere, especially water and oxygen, as soon as they land on Earth,” explained NHM Professor Sara Russell.
“We want to keep the material as fresh as possible and as close as possible to the returned mission (space) samples. Also, we already know that Winchcombe is full of organic matter, and we want to make sure that doesn’t become contaminated with it. the enormous amount of organic matter crawling all around the Earth’s surface, ”she told BBC News.
Science In Action with presenter Roland Pease airs weekly on BBC World Service. The first episode airing is Thursday at 7:30 p.m. GMT (8:30 p.m. BST). It can then be listened to on demand on BBC Sounds.
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