Asteroid that exploded in German skies is rare aubrite!

If you've ever seen a streak in the sky, it could be a meteor... and if you're lucky enough to find it, it may be a rare mineral. That's what happened in Berlin, Germany last month, January, 2024.

(This is one of the meteorites – rocks from space – recovered from the asteroid that exploded in the skies over Germany on January 21, 2024. Analysis shows that it’s a rare type of meteorite, known as an aubrite. Image via Museum für Naturkunde Berlin by Laura Kranich/ SETI.)

Asteroid that exploded in German skies is rare aubrite 

 Posted by Kelly Kizer Whitt February 7, 2024

Astronomers discovered a new asteroid last January 21, 2024, just hours before it struck Earth’s atmosphere above Germany. As it fell, producing a fireball, the little asteroid dropped meteorites – or fragments of itself – onto the countryside below. Meteorite hunters west of Berlin got to work and soon discovered asteroid fragments, which they then sent to labs for scientific analysis On February 5, 2024, the SETI Institute said the rock from space was a rare type: an aubrite. They said the fragments might have originated on Mercury.

The SETI Institute scientists said aubrites are tricky to find. Most meteorites that hit Earth have a thin black outer crust, resulting from their fiery passage through Earth’s atmosphere. But aubrites have a mostly translucent, glassy crust.

Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute traveled to Germany to help hunt for the meteorites. He said in a statement:

They were devilishly difficult to find because, from a distance, they look like other rocks on Earth. Close up, not so much … We only spotted the meteorites after a Polish team of meteorite hunters had identified the first find and could show us what to look for.

It was Jenniskens’ 4th trip to the site of an asteroid impact where remnant meteorites were indeed found on the ground. The previous three were in Sudan in 2008, Botswana in 2018, and France in 2023. 

VIDEO OF THE FIREBALL OVER BERLIN:    

An official classification Scientists at the Natural History Museum of Berlin examined one of the meteorites with an electron beam microprobe, which is a non-destructive tool that determines the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. They found the mineralogy and chemical composition was that of an aubrite. Then, they submitted their result to the International Nomenclature Commission of the Meteoritical Society on February 2, 2024. The society examined the meteorite and confirmed their classification.

Aubrites are named for a village in France: Aubrés. On September 14, 1836, a meteorite fell in this location and showed evidence of a violent origin. These magnesium-rich, igneous rocks might have originated on Mercury.

Ansgar Greshake, scientific head of the Natural History Museum of Berlin’s meteorite collection, said: So far, there is only material from eleven other observed falls of this type in meteorite collections worldwide.