On January 5, 2023, an international team of researchers discovered a space rock - an extremely rare meteorite that is truly out of this world.
The meteorite weighing just 17 pounds contains some of the oldest material in the Solar System.
It is also one of the largest meteorites ever found in Antarctica and researchers believe that it originated from the Main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.
The meteorite is extremely rare because it is very difficult to find in a larger size.
According to the Chicago Field Museum, 45,000 meteorites have been retrieved from Antarctica but only about 100 are of a larger size.
Antarctica remains a major hunting ground for meteorites because space rocks can easily be distinguished against the ice.
Scientists were able to discover the meteorite due to its color and its crusty layer. Unlike terrestrial rocks, meteorites have a glassy crust. In addition, meteorites are much denser than regular Earth rocks.
The meteorite has now been sent to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium for chemical analysis.
Scientists hope that because the meteorite is so old, it could give them information about the evolution of the Earth. They believe that the meteorite fell on the Antarctic ice tens of thousands of years ago so it would definitely hold that information.
The meteorite may even contain information from billions of years ago. It can reveal the age of the elements that formed planets and the temperatures on an asteroid.
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