There's so much we don't know about the universe and a recently discovered meteorite proved that here on Earth! There are 2 minerals in it that scientists discovered don't exist on Earth. Here's the story from Live Science:
Two minerals never before been seen on Earth found inside 17-ton meteorite
By Ben Turner Live Science Nov. 29, 2022 The minerals were found inside a slice of the El Ali meteorite, which landed in Somalia in 2020.
Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered inside a massive meteorite in Somalia. They could hold important clues to how asteroids form.
The two brand new minerals were found inside a single 2.5 ounce (70 gram) slice taken from the 16.5 ton (15 metric tons) El Ali meteorite, which was found in 2020. Scientists named the minerals elaliite after the meteor and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the managing director of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative and principal investigator of NASA's upcoming Psyche mission, which will send a probe to investigate the mineral-rich Psyche asteroid for evidence of how our solar system's planets formed."Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found before," Chris Herd(opens in new tab), a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, said in a statement(opens in new tab). "That's what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science."
The researchers classified El Ali as an Iron IAB complex meteorite, a type made of meteoric iron flecked with tiny chunks of silicates. While investigating the meteorite slice, details of the new minerals caught the scientists' attention. By comparing the minerals with versions of them that had been previously synthesized in a lab, they were able to rapidly identify them as newly recorded in nature. CLICK here for full story.
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