New research recently proposed that there may have been hundreds of thousands of meteorites left undiscovered on Antarctica's icy fields.
More so, a Space.com report specified that it has also been revealed what may be the most possible places for such meteorites to be unearthed.
Almost two-thirds of all meteorites recovered on this planet come from Antarctica. The frozen continent's cold, dry nature helps preserve these space rocks, and such stones' dark colors make them stand out against snow and ice.
Essentially, meteorites were originally part of planetary bodies. Thus these space rocks from the bottom of the world have produced a lot of valuable hints about nature, origins, and the solar system's evolution.
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New research recently proposed that there may have been hundreds of thousands of meteorites left undiscovered on Antarctica’s icy fields.
Almost All Antarctic Meteorites Recovered from Blue Ice Areas
When meteorites fall on Antarctica, usually, they land in the snow-covered regions, spanning about 98 percent of the continent.
Over time, snow mounts up there, compacts, and turns into ice, embedding the space rocks within ice sheets flowing toward the continent's margins.
Most ice-entrapped Antarctic meteorites end up in the ocean. Nonetheless, some of them become concentrated on the ice sheets' surface, in areas of the so-called "blue eyes," where wind and the other factors can lead to bare eyes that have an azure hue.
If the manner the Antarctic ice flows, and the climate and terrain's other features are right, meteorites can stay exposed on the surface of blue ice, where scientists can easily collect them during field missions. Almost all Antarctic meteorites discovered to date were recovered from blue ice sites.
Moreover, many known meteorite-rich blue ice areas today were discovered by sheer luck and previous experience on costly reconnaissance missions. Now, researchers have developed a new approach based on artificial intelligence.
According to the study's lead author, glaciologist Veronica Tollenaar, from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, they found some undiscovered sites with a great potential to detect meteorites.
Use of Artificial Intelligence Program
In the new study published in Science Advances, researchers had AI software that analyzes satellite data of the whole surface of Antarctica.
The objective was to identify the zones most possible to harbor still undiscovered meteorites on the frozen continent based on their resemblances to areas where researchers had previously unearthed space rocks.
They focused on optical, thermal, and radar data of surface features such as temperature, slope, and velocity of the ice.
A similar Press News Agency report said the AI program could precisely identify almost 83 percent of known meteorite-rich Antarctic zones. All in all, it was able to identify over 600 possibly meteorite-rich zones on the continent, which include numerous presently undiscovered ones, a number of which are comparatively close to the present research stations on Antarctica.
Entering a New Period of 'Antarctic Meteorite Recovery Missions'
By visiting the said locations and using new recovery methods in the field like surveys with drones among others, they are about to enter a new period of "Antarctic meteorite recovery missions," Tollenaar explained.
The new findings propose that the over 45,000 meteorites recovered at present from Antarctica are composed of only five to 13 percent of all meteorites there.
The lead author added that their computations suggest that over 300,000 meteorites still exist at the surface of the ice sheet, so the potential stays enormous.
Given that the AI program is not 100 percent precise, the researchers might at times go to an area the software found promising and not find any meteorite, warned Tollenaar.
Still, even though failed missions will prove disappointing, she explained, their data will hopefully help improve the artificial intelligence "to make it better in the future."
Related information about meteorites in Antarctica is shown on the European Space Agency's YouTube video below:
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