2021 At the beginning of 2021, scientists collected almost uncontaminated meteorite fragments almost immediately after the meteorite fell. This celestial body was originally rich in water, and the ratio of isotope in it is the same as that of water on Earth. This shows that it is the ancient asteroid that fills our planet's oceans with moisture.
Winchcomb One of the fragments of meteorites
Three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered with water, and life is produced and developed in water. The question of where so much water comes from on Earth remains unsolved. The most commonly accepted assumption is that it is "released" by the comet and the asteroid that actively bombarded the young planet. But there are other versions - Earth initially contains most of the water in , and the sun plays a role in its appearance. A unique meteorite discovered in the UK last year confirms the "asteroid" hypothesis. This is reported in an article published in in the journal " Science Advances ".
This object fell near the small British town of Winchcombe on February 28, 2021. Thousands of witnesses on the scene, as well as recorder , surveillance cameras and even the "smart bells" on the doors of local residents, have recorded this incident. Within hours, scientists collected the remains of the meteorite on the nearest road. It was extremely fragile and collapsed on impact, with only about 300 grams of small pieces and dust eventually falling into the hands of the researchers. In the next few hours, another 200 grams of fragments were found nearby, including a considerable piece of fragment.
Winchcombe Meteorite wreckage on the road nearby
"With rapid collection and delivery, Winchcombe has become one of the purest, original meteorites ever analyzed, creating a unique opportunity to travel through time and figure out what the solar system was composed 4.6 billion years ago," said Ashley King. King), he analyzed this unique finding with colleagues at the Natural History Museum in London. In fact, the meteorite is not deeply affected by the conditions of the earth and has largely retained its original characteristics.
Winchcombe belongs to chondria , a very common group of meteorites formed directly by protoplanetary clouds surrounding the young sun. Scientists have identified it as a carbonaceous SM chondrites rich in silicon and iron compounds. It also found amino acid and other simple organic molecules; carbon accounts for about two percent of Winchcombe's mass. The other 11% is water in aqueous minerals. The isotope composition of this water is similar to that of the Earth, indicating that there may be a correlation between them. The author of the work emphasizes that if the meteorite is left for longer, it will be more polluted by the water in the environment, and such an analysis is impossible.
Based on Winchcombe's chemical and isotope composition, as well as camera data that records its trajectory through the atmosphere, scientists discovered that the meteorite was recently hit from the surface of an asteroid near Jupiter . According to their calculations, this happened only about a million years ago, and the last eighty thousand years of debris were near Earth. In this way, the source of the meteorite can be traced to up to one thousandth of a thousand, once again highlighting the uniqueness of Winchcombe.
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