28-September-2005, 05:54 PM
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Vulcan Moderator
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Posts: 24,311
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Learning from meteorites
Unusual Meteorite Unlocks Treasure Trove Of Solar System Secrets
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An unusual meteorite that fell on a frozen lake in Canada five years ago has led a Florida State University geochemist to a breakthrough in understanding the origin of the chemical elements that make up our solar system.
Professor Munir Humayun of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the geological sciences department at FSU and Alan Brandon of NASA discovered an isotopic anomaly in the rare element osmium in primitive meteorites. The anomalous osmium was derived from small stars with a higher neutron density than that which formed our solar system. The findings of the researchers, who also included colleagues from the University of Maryland and Bern University in Switzerland, were recently published in the journal Science.
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Meteorites Offer Glimpse of the Early Earth, Say Purdue Scientists
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Important clues to the environment in which the early Earth formed may be emerging from Purdue University scientists' recent study of a particular class of meteorites.
By examining the chemistry of 29 chunks of rock that formed billions of years ago, probably in close proximity to our planet, two Purdue researchers, Michael E. Lipschutz and Ming-Sheng Wang, have clarified our understanding of the conditions present in the vicinity of the ancient Earth's orbit. Because direct evidence for these conditions is lacking in terrestrial samples, the scientists believe that the composition of these so-called enstatite chondrite (EC) meteorites could offer a window into the planet's distant past.
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