Rare Antarctic meteorite is one of the largest ever found

Antarctica is a great place for meteorite hunting.Space rocks stand out in large fields of ice, researchers discover new crop

To Alex Wilkins

Antarctic researchers have found a rare large meteorite on the ice. Weighing 7.6 kilograms, he is one of the largest space rocks ever discovered on the continent.

Antarctica’s dry, cold climate carefully preserves any meteorites that land on it, but the uniform white background and active glaciers stir up ancient space rocks buried beneath the ice, making them perfect for finding meteorites. I’m looking for one of those places. Over the past 100 years, more than 45,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica, mostly micrometeorites weighing tens to hundreds of grams.

Maria Schoenbechler of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and her colleagues discovered five new meteorites during an expedition near the Princess Elizabeth Antarctic Research Station last December. This was during the Antarctic summer, when temperatures were relatively warm at -10°C (14°F).

To find the meteorite, Schönbächler and her team used machine learning models to comb satellite imagery and identify five ice regions with relatively little snow. They systematically explored all five of her regions by snowmobile, but only one of hers contained meteorites. “We were lucky to find something this big,” Schönbächler says.

The meteorite hasn’t been analyzed yet, but it looks like ordinary chondrite, the most common type, says Schönbächler. These objects contain the oldest material in the solar system and are thought to have originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The team now plans to send the meteorite in a coolbox to Belgium for further analysis to prevent thawing, which could damage its delicate chemical structure.

“Meteorites this large are rarely found in Antarctica,” said Ashley King of the Natural History Museum in London. .”

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