4.5 billion year-old meteorite found in back garden, a gem for researchers

Record ID: 896011

  • Title: 4.5 billion year-old meteorite found in back garden, a gem for researchers
  • Date: 27th June 2017
  • Summary: LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS (JUNE 27, 2017) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF LEIDEN RESEARCH CENTER SENIOR GEOLOGY RESEARCHER, LEO KRIEGSMAN, AT COMPUTER COMPUTER SCREEN SHOWING MICROSCOPIC IMAGE OF THE METEORITE KRIEGSMAN AT COMPUTER KRIEGSMAN VARIOUS OF KRIEGSMAN UNPACKING AND REVEALING METEORITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR GEOLOGY RESEARCHER, LEO KRIEGSMAN, SAYING: "If you look inside, it has little globules, little balls of olivine, which come from the earliest stages of the condensation of the stellar cloud when the solar system was starting, so it tells you the real beginning of the solar system and that's spectacular in itself, that you can see that in a rock and you can hold it in your hand and it's about 4.5 billion years old, so that is really spectacular to have in your garden." METEORITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR GEOLOGY RESEARCHER, LEO KRIEGSMAN, SAYING: "So we found about twelve different types of minerals in there, we could for example show that there is absolutely no water, not a single drop, very dry, which also usually reflects the high temperatures it went through." KRIEGSMAN PICKING UP METEORITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR GEOLOGY RESEARCHER, LEO KRIEGSMAN, SAYING: "Meteorites are very special because they tell us a part of the story that we cannot tell on Earth. We are geologists, we study Earth and when we go out into the field we can see different rocks of different ages, but we were lacking the first 200-300 million years of the Earth's history. That part is only accessible through meteorites, because they are the oldest objects that we find, so we are very happy to find any meteorite." METEORITE PUT BACK IN GLASS JAR
  • Embargoed: 11th July 2017 16:26
  • Keywords: meteorite Netherlands science geology rock space
  • Location: LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS
  • City: LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Science,Space Exploration
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016N21M4N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Researchers at the Leiden's Naturalis Biodiversity Center announced on Monday (June 26) the discovery of a 500-gram-meteorite that could help shed light on the origin of our solar system.
    In a statement, the research centre said several people in the Netherlands and Belgium witnessed on January 11 a fireball flying over the Dutch town of Broek in Waterland, making it the sixth meteorite to be found in the Netherlands in two centuries.
    The extraterrestrial object hit the roof of a shed, shattering its wooden frame without causing any injury.
    Researchers believe the asteroid originated from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
    One of them, Leo Kriegsman, said it could provide key information about the formation of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago, as no stone this old can be found on earth.
    Kriegsman described the meteorite as a 'L6 chondrite,' a common type of space rock.
    Researchers at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center estimate that one meteorite of this size hits the Netherlands once in every 3-4 years, but that they are not always found.
    The previous meteorite found in the Netherlands was 27 years ago in Glanerbrug, near the German border.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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