UNITED KINGDOM: In Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, earlier this year, a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite fell. It may hold the key to explaining how our planet gets its water.
Winchcombe meteorite has water traces that are almost identical to the water on earth, according to scientists. This has increased the likelihood that important chemical substances, including water, may have arrived on Earth from space.
According to research, water accounted for about 11% of the meteorite’s weight. The amount of hydrogen atoms in that water was practically identical to that of Earth’s water. The Winchcombe meteorite is regarded as having fallen in a carbonaceous chondrite with the greatest degree of accuracy.
The meteorite was recovered by experts within a few hours, indicating that it was not only ejected from a primitive asteroid quickly and that it reached our planet unaltered.
The meteorite was described as “the least terrestrially changed member of the CM chondrite group recovered to date” in the study that was published on Science.org.
The Winchcombe meteorite, a well-documented fall, “confirms the relationship between CM chondrites and hydrated main belt C-type asteroids that are considered to have originated in the outer solar system,” the authors continued.
Many CM chondrites contain the uncommon amino acid L-isovaline. It has been suggested that this explains why life on Earth has a bias in its favour.
The Winchcombe meteorite, on the other hand, lacked this. A vital part of the creation of life requires primordial compounds like amino acids.
Scientists are now thinking about the possibility that organic compounds could have arrived on the early Earth via carbonaceous chondrites after their presence was discovered in the recent Winchcombe meteorite fall.
It only took the Winchcombe meteorite 2,000–3,000 years to reach Earth. This can unravel a lot about the Earth, however, to solve the mysteries of our planet, more investigation is necessary.
Also Read: Water Found on the Meteorite That Struck Gloucestershire
