AUBRITE METEORITE - GEOGRAPHY
News: Second
aubrite meteorite found in India in 170 years
What's in the news?
● On
August 17, 2022, a meteorite streaked over India, breaking apart as it
descended through the air, to scatter over two villages in Banaskantha,
Gujarat.
● One
piece struck a neem tree in Rantila village and shattered into several pieces.
Another landed on the porch of a house in Ravel village, 10 km away, and met a
similar fate.
Key takeaways:
● The
meteorite is a "rare, unique specimen" of aubrite, analysis by a
group at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, has revealed.
● Hundreds
of meteorites have crashed in India, but this is only the second recorded crash
of an aubrite. The last was in 1852 in Basti, Uttar Pradesh.
● Worldwide,
aubrites have crashed in at least 12 locations since 1836, including six in the
U.S.
Aubrites:
● Aubrites
are "igneous rocks" that form
in oxygen-poor conditions, and thus "contain a variety of exotic
minerals that are not found on Earth".
● For
example, the mineral heideite was first described in the Basti meteorite.
● Aubrites
are a type of meteorite.
○ Meteors
are pieces of some solid object in space that broke away, descended onto a
planet or moon.
○ Once
they reach the surface, they are called meteorites.
Origin of Aubrites:
● Scientists
are not yet sure of their origin, although some signs indicate they could be
from the asteroid 3103 Eger or from the planet Mercury.
● Aubrite
meteorites either fall rarely on Earth or they might have fragmented in finer
fractions before falling or [have got] lost during atmospheric ablation.
Minerals found in Meteorites:
Around
90% of the meteorite was composed of Ortho-pyroxenes.
● Pyroxenes
are silicates consisting of single chains of Silica tetrahedra (Si04).
● Ortho-pyroxenes
are pyroxenes with a certain structure.
● Pyroxenes
such as diopside and jadeite have been
used as gems.
● Spodumene
was historically used as lithium ore.
● Rocks
with pyroxene have also been used to make crushed stone used in construction.