[meteorite-list] Terrestrial meteorite

[Ryan Ogliore]

Meteorite left Earth then landed back down after round trip to space

Most of the meteorites found on Earth come from asteroids, but a few come
from other bodies like Mars and the moon. Now, researchers say they have
discovered a new kind - a rock originally from Earth that went to space
then came back

By Alex Wilkins <https://www.newscientist.com/author/alex-wilkins/>

11 July 2023
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The meteorite NWA 13188 seems to have travelled to space and back

Albert Jambon

A meteorite found in the Sahara desert in Morocco may have originated on
Earth, before being blasted into space and returning from orbit thousands
of years later. If confirmed, this boomerang space rock would be the first
of its kind we know about.

Almost all the meteorites we have found come from asteroids, but a tiny
fraction are from planetary bodies, such as Mars
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2327959-meteorite-from-mars-traced-to-crater-where-it-was-ejected-by-impact/>
and
the moon. These come from violent impacts that launch debris into space
before later falling to Earth. Astronomers have shown that debris from
similar impacts on Earth may also have fallen back to its home planet, but
we have yet to find a compelling sample.

Now, Jérôme Gattacceca
<https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=eJlI2SwAAAAJ&hl=fr> at the French
National Centre for Scientific Research and his colleagues think they may
have found a 600-gram meteorite from Earth. The rock, called NWA 13188, has
the same chemical make-up as volcanic rock from our planet. It also has a
thin layer of melted crust consistent with an impact and contains isotopes
of elements that only form when an object has been bombarded with cosmic
rays in space.

“It’s a meteorite from the Earth that has spent time in space, between 2000
and a few tens of thousands of years,” Gattacceca told the Goldschmidt
geochemistry conference in Lyon, France, on 11 July.

NWA 13188 was originally found in the Sahara desert by a Bedouin group,
which scours the landscape for potential meteorites to sell, so its exact
location is unknown. It was certified as a meteorite by the Meteoritical
Society in 2021, but was classified as “ungrouped” because its origin
couldn’t be determined.

When Gattacceca and his team examined the rock, they found it had a similar
chemical make-up to rocks on Earth, such as the same oxygen isotope
fingerprint, as well as geological structures made at the boundary between
tectonic plates, which only Earth has because other planets have no plate
tectonics
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2148366-huge-space-rocks-could-have-helped-start-earths-plate-tectonics/>
.

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They then looked for evidence of irradiation from cosmic rays, which
produce elements like beryllium-3 and helium-10 in asteroids. The levels of
these elements were lower than in other meteorites, but were still
significantly higher than any material found on Earth. This suggests that
NWA 13188 spent a brief period outside Earth’s magnetic field, from a few
thousand to possibly up to 100,000 years, says Gattacceca.

Read more:

Small asteroid hits Earth just hours after astronomers detect it
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2312418-small-asteroid-hits-earth-just-hours-after-astronomers-detect-it/>

But not everyone agrees. “When you’re claiming extraordinary hypotheses,
you need extraordinary evidence to back it up. I am still unconvinced,”
says Philippe Claeys
<https://scholar.google.com.vn/citations?user=I06UZw8AAAAJ&hl=vi> at the
Free University of Brussels (VUB) in Belgium.

The lack of a known impact crater, which Gattacceca estimates should be
around 20 kilometres wide, counts against it, says Claeys. “When you have
an impact crater that young, you would have an impact melt that is still
‘hot and smoking’ — it would be really hard to miss.”

Gattacceca and his team are now trying to determine the age of the
meteorite more accurately, using argon and carbon dating, which will help
them narrow down a potential source.

There is also a question of whether the object can even be called a
meteorite if it comes from Earth and only orbits for a relatively short
time. There are many other rocks that reach high in Earth’s atmosphere from
processes like volcanic eruptions, says Stepan Chernonozhkin
<https://scholar.google.be/citations?user=bYnLGKYAAAAJ&hl=en> at the
University of Leoben in Austria. “If you define an Earth meteorite, you’re
stretching the definition of meteorite.”

Topics:

   - Meteors <https://www.newscientist.com/article-topic/meteors/>


On Wed, Jul 12, 2023 at 9:11 AM Michael Farmer via Meteorite-list <
meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately paywall
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
> <https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&af_sub1=Acquisition&af_sub2=Global_YMktg&af_sub3=&af_sub4=100000604&af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_>
>
> On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, 2:05 AM, Albert Jambon via Meteorite-list <
> meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>
> There was a presentation at the Goldschmidt Conference in Lyon this week.
> Here is a link
>
>
>
>
> https://www.newscientist.com/article/2381928-meteorite-left-earth-then-landed-back-down-after-round-trip-to-space/
>
>
>
> Albert JAMBON
>
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