Antarctica is an ideal location for finding meteorites due to its unique characteristics such as the contrast of dark rocks against the icy terrain, minimal weathering due to a dry climate, and the ability of meteorites to resurface through the movement of glaciers.
However, despite these favorable conditions, discovering large pieces of meteorites is still a rarity. A team of scientists has recently returned from their expedition to Antarctica and has brought back five new meteorites, one of which is particularly large.
ScienceAlert mentioned that the most significant discovery in this collection of meteorites is a specimen that weighs 7.6 kilograms (16.8 pounds) and is among the top 100 largest meteorites found in Antarctica in the past century. As more than 45,000 meteorites have been discovered in Antarctica, this is a significant achievement.
Monster Meteorite
The large meteorite will be taken to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences to be examined in detail along with the smaller meteorites. Scientists can gain a lot of knowledge from studying the journey of meteorites to our planet.
Maria Valdes, a cosmochemist from the Field Museum in Illinois, stated that the size of meteorites is not always important as even small micrometeorites can provide significant scientific value. However, finding a large meteorite is a rare and exciting occurrence as reported by CNET.
Even though meteorites are more visible in Antarctica, it is still a challenging place to explore due to its harsh weather and remote location. The team that made this discovery spent several days camping and traveling on foot and snowmobiles. To increase their chances of finding meteorites, they used a "treasure map" that was published last year, which uses satellite imagery and AI to predict where new meteorites might be located based on factors such as ice flow, temperature, and surface slope.
The large meteorite that's been recovered.
Meteorites in Antarctica
"Exploring unknown areas is always exciting," said Vinciane Debaille, a geoscientist from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. "But we also had to contend with the fact that the reality on the ground is much more challenging than what satellite images suggest." The map used by the researchers is believed to be 80% accurate in terms of the directions it gives, and it is estimated that there are more than 300,000 meteorites yet to be discovered in Antarctica.
Despite the ideal conditions for meteorites discovered in Antarctica, scientists believe many meteorites, particularly those high in iron, are still being missed. This could be due to these types of meteorites heating up in sunlight, melting the surrounding ice, and sinking below the surface. However, with this recent discovery of a large collection of meteorites, scientists can now study these rocks more closely to gain insights into the history of the Solar System. "The more samples of meteorites we have, the better we can understand our Solar System, and ultimately, ourselves," Valdes added.
"Meteorites are rocks that have fallen to Earth from space and can be seen as shooting stars. In the past, three Belgian-Japanese missions to the Nansen Blue Ice Field near the Belgian station in Antarctica have collected over 600 meteorites. The team used satellite images and GPS coordinates to identify areas of interest and search for meteorites," said Professor Maria Schoenbaechler, a researcher from the department of earth sciences at ETH-Zurich in Switzerland, who participated in the expedition to Antarctica.
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