A Florida State University student has shown a piece of ancient meteorite to have a much more explosive and fascinating history than previously thought, Phys.org reports.
Jonathan Oulton, a 2015 FSU graduate working with Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Science Professor Munir Humayun, studied pieces of a meteorite called Gujba, and found that it likely formed at the time planets in our solar system were in their early development.
Humayun and Oulton conducted in-depth chemical analysis on the samples using sophisticated lasers and mass spectrometers at the FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.They were able to refute the existing theory that the meteorite was largely formed from the dust of the solar system, and replace it with one that hints at a more complex geological history.
A more explosive history
The pair and their collaborators argue that Gujba formed from the molten debris produced when a large metallic body smashed into another planet, in an impact that destroyed them both.
Chemical traces preserved in Gujba suggested that the planet might have been even larger than the asteroid 4 Vesta, which has a diameter of around 326 miles, and is one of the largest bodies in the asteroid belt.
“People used to say that meteorites like Gujba were the building blocks of the solar system,” Humayun said. “Now, we know it’s the ‘construction debris’ of the planets, to borrow a phrase from Ed Scott of the University of Hawaii.”
“In a broad sense, people have been trying forever to understand how we got here,” Oulton added. “Although this doesn’t get to that directly, this research gives us a greater understanding of the physical chemistry of everything that occurred at the time the Earth formed.”
The research will be published in an upcoming issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
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Image credit: Florida State University
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