A rare 4.5-billion-year-old carbonaceous meteorite has landed in Canada. According to the researchers, the meteorite may help in understanding the origin of the solar system, and even in understanding life on Earth. The carbonaceous meteorites contain organic substances that are the building blocks of life, such as amino acids, and star dust that originates from stars that exploded outside the solar system.
Chemical analysis of the meteorite's components reveals that it contains substances that have not changed since they were grouped together, during the formation of the solar system. According to the researchers, its composition is different from all the meteorites discovered so far - 60 in number, according to Prof. Michael Lifschutz from Purdue University in Indiana.
The meteorite, which landed in an ice-covered area in the Yukon province of western Canada in January, was found by a local resident, Jim Brock, who preserved it frozen. Since its discovery, NASA research teams have been sent to the site to search for additional fragments of the meteorite.
This is the only meteorite in the hands of scientists that has not been melted, Dr. Ian Lyon from the University of Manchester told the BBC this week. Since the meteorite fell in an ice-covered area and was never thawed, it is possible that organic materials were preserved in it, which exposure to high temperature would have destroyed. The scientists believe that the study of these materials, in the form in which they existed back in the days of the formation of the solar system, may help in understanding the development of undeveloped life forms.
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