Scientists have studied a rare iron meteorite intimately, discovering what orbit its parent body occupied before crashing into Earth. It’s the primary iron meteorite for which such orbit has been calculated.
The 12-inch-long (30 centimeters), 30-pound (14 kilograms) chunk of space rock fell to Earth after a fireball erupted over Sweden in 2020. Iron meteorites similar to this constitute just around 2% of the space rocks that make it to Earth’s surface, so the item became a rare and beneficial sample for researchers.
Iron meteorites are believed to be fragments of molten metallic cores at the guts of planetesimals, small bodies that existed around 4.5 billion years ago. A lot of these bodies eventually got here together back then to form the solar system’s planets, including Earth.
As such, the studies of meteorites like this could reveal beneficial information in regards to the state of the solar system in its infancy and the forms of elements that ended up becoming incorporated into the planets, study team members said.
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“A superb opportunity for research occurred when a brilliant fireball, mainly observed by the Finnish Fireball Network, on November 7, 2020, over Sweden, produced the primary iron meteorite with a possibility to derive its pre-atmospheric trajectory,” Jaakko Visuri, an analyst with the Finnish Fireball Network and Ursa Astronomical Association, said in a press release. “This provided us a singular likelihood to check the delivery mechanism of iron meteorites and to search for iron-rich reservoirs within the solar system.”
Seizing this chance was a team of astronomers from Ukraine, led by Irina Belskaya, the pinnacle of the Department of Physics of Asteroids and Comets at Kharkiv National University’s Institute of Astronomy. The research was conducted as a part of a project began in 2020 dedicated to studying metal-rich asteroids, that are the parent bodies of iron meteorites.
“For the very first time, this discovery presents a documented trajectory of an iron meteoroid, showcasing a record-breaking fireball descent at a mere 7 miles (11.4 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface and in addition unraveling the celestial pathways it traversed before gracing our planet,” said Finnish Geospatial Research Institute researcher Maraia Gritsevich. (Meteoroids are small space rocks; they turn into meteors once they hit Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. Pieces of those rocks that make it to Earth’s surface are called meteorites.)
“This achievement not only provides insights into the remarkable journey it endured but in addition contributes to our understanding of the origins and dynamics of iron-rich space objects, thereby deepening our insight into the broader solar system,” Gritsevich added.
Amongst the data the scientists collected in regards to the meteorite were clues in regards to the conditions and processes that led to its formation. This might help determine how chemical resources are distributed through the solar system.
Such work could, in turn, potentially help prepare future space missions that hunt for metal-rich asteroids that could possibly be enticing space-mining targets.
Calculating the orbit of the meteorite’s parent body helps paint an image of the celestial mechanics at play within the early solar system, including interactions between other bodies in our cosmic backyard and the gravitational forces at play.
As well as, higher predicting the trail of this object could help constrain the orbits of other asteroids, with implications for planetary defense, study team members said. As such, this small iron-rich rock from space could turn into a stepping stone for a wealth of future space science.