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Named after the Australian town that it was found in, back in 1951, the Wedderburn meteorite has unveiled a new side: a mineral that has never been seen naturally on Earth has been founded inside it.
The mineral has been named 'edscottite,' after Edward Scott, a renowned cosmochemist from the University of Hawaii.
The mineral was discovered after a team of researchers from CalTech, lead by mineralogist Chi Ma. They closely examined a segment of what's left of the original 220-gram red and black rock.
The original meteorite is kept as part of the Museums Victoria's collection in Australia.
RELATED: LOCATION OF AN ANCIENT ONE KILOMETER-WIDE METEORITE FOUND IN SCOTLAND
A mineral is an assortment of atoms set into a specific form, and naturally occurring in nature. For example, salt and diamonds are two minerals, one made with sodium chloride and one made with pure carbon.
What have they found here?
A new mineral was discovered inside the meteorite. Microscopically, it occurs in the form of small white crystals.
Credit: Rodney Begin/Victoria Museums. "This meteorite had an abundance of carbon in it. And as it slowly cooled down, the iron and carbon came together and formed this mineral," said Dr. Stuart Mills, Museums Victoria's senior curator of geosciences.
What's up with the edscottite?
A synthetic edscottite has, in fact, been discovered previously - typically found inside smelters. This is a phase through which iron passes when steel is melted.
The difference here is that edscottite has never been experienced or discovered to be of natural origin in nature. Only when minerals are found in nature can they be named.
That's why it's such an exciting discovery. As Dr. Mills pointed out, "We have discovered 500,000 to 600,000 minerals in the lab, but fewer than 6,000 that nature’s done itself."
Less than 6,000 that nature has done itself.
Less than 6,000 than nature has done herself." Scientists have discovered a new mineral, never before seen in nature, lodged inside a meteorite found near wedderburn in central victoria. https://t.co/j8tt9xqRDn
— Belinda Barnet (@manjusrii) August 31, 2019
Https://tonne. co/j8tt9x qRDn—
Many scientists have claimed chunks of it over the years in the name of research, and only one-third of the meteorite is still left. Https://t. co/j8tt9xqrdn— belinda barnet (@manjusrii) Aug 31st, 2019The history of the Wedderburn meteorite has been claimed by many scientists over the years for the sake of research, and we're down to a third of the meteor.
The meteorite is believed to have emanated from an old planet, which no longer exists. We think the meteorite came from an old planet that doesn't exist anymore.
While it was exploding, meteorites of its core were projected into space. Wedderburn's meteor was such a blown-up piece of the planet.
The findings were published in the journal, American Mineralogist.
