The white and icy expanses of Antarctica are privileged terrain for searching for meteorites. If most of them are small in general, it makes beautiful discoveries. A team of scientists thus fell on a meteorite of more than 7 kg!
Every day, meteorites cross the Earth’s atmosphere to complete their course across the landscape. If it is certain that a large part will sink in an ocean, the others will crash somewhere on a continent. These are mostly regions with dense vegetation. Finding them is therefore usually purely coincidental. Unless they fall in a desert environment. Their dark color contrasts well with the sands of the deserts of North Africa or Latin America, which meteorite hunters tirelessly survey. But for the bravest, there is another destination, certainly more affordable: Antarctica.
In this ice-white desert, meteorites are actually visible, like the nose in the center of the figure. You still need to be well equipped to pick them up! But scientists are not cold-eyed. A team of four researchers embarked on an expedition in search of meteorites based on satellite data to identify the sites to study.
A block weighing 7.6 kg fell from the sky
And the fishing was pretty good. Five meteorites were found, including one weighing 7.6 kgkg! An exciting discovery, because although the meteorites that arrive on Earth have a wide range of sizes, meteorites in this weight range are still relatively rare. It is estimated that of the approximately 45,000 meteorites found in Antarctica in the last century, only a few hundred are this size.
These meteorites are now being studied at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The researchers also recorded sediments that might contain micrometeorites. These samples are distributed to several institutions for analysis. Indeed, if micrometeorites can prove to be particularly rich in information, the larger the analyzed meteorite fragment, the more data they provide, allowing for a better understanding of the Solar SystemSolar System and the manner in which it was formed.