For more information about meteorite check the Wikipedia article here
In March, a medium sized meteorite slammed into the moon’s surface causing the greatest explosion observed thus far, ever since the moon’s surface was first monitored by NASA looking for such events eight years ago. The meteorite collided with the moon at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph), creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 [...]
Wed, Mar 20, 2013
There are millions of asteroids in our solar system. Be them the size of France or a small bus, these space rocks can be found through out the solar system, and have recently become the subject of entrepreneurial discussions, since even a single medium-sized asteroid is thought to carry trillions of dollars worth of rare [...]
Wed, Mar 13, 2013
Ok, so big news on the horizon: alien life forms have been found in a meteorite that recently crashed in Sri Lanka, on December 29, bringing along a new perspective on how we view the origin and movement of life. But… have they really? Well, sorry to burst your bubble ladies and gentlemen, but in [...]
Tue, Mar 12, 2013
A new analysis of data from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) shows that molten rock created by lunar impacts has been around for much longer than previously believed. During its earliest days, the Moon was covered in an ocean of molten rock, pretty much like every planet out there. As that lunar magma ocean [...]
Tue, Feb 26, 2013
Most of us likely own a phone that has more computing power than that available for the entire Apollo mission which landed a man on the moon, still rather curiously we choose to dedicate most of it to browsing photos of cute cats on the web. Nevertheless, there comes a time when pedestrian technology can [...]
Thu, Feb 21, 2013
I realize we’re maybe bugging some of you with these constant asteroid/meteor pieces here on ZME Science, but for what’s it worth we found this recently released NASA video comprised of radar images during 2012 DA14′s recent flyby very interesting. The movie, which combines 73 radar-images captured over the course of eight hours on the [...]
Wed, Feb 20, 2013
The recent historical flyby of 2012 D14 – the largest asteroid ever to pass this close to Earth in recorded space observational history – as well as the modest in size, but monumental in punch meteorite that exploded over Russia caused an whole frenzy around them on the web. Thing is, meteorites and asteroids have [...]
Mon, Feb 11, 2013
Using 21st century nanotechnology, researchers have discovered a new mineral in samples from a meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 1969. The meteorite is 4.5 billion years old and originates from an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. The new mineral has alluded scientists for some time since its discovery by a Japanese expedition team to Antarctica [...]
Wed, Jan 30, 2013
Close, but not too close – an asteroid like that can crash on our planet every 1200 years, but there’s no reason to worry, even though it will make a flyby on February 15, passing at a distance of only 26.780 km. For comparison, the distance to the Moon varies from around 356,400 km to [...]
Mon, Jan 21, 2013
The cold, lifeless Vesta asteroid might be a lot more like our planet than astronomers believed – having a very active life in the early stages of the solar system evolution, a study of a Saharan meteorite shows. The planet that wasn’t Vesta might host a magmatic layer under its rocky exterior, allowing minerals to [...]
Wed, Jan 9, 2013
The Apophis meteorite was named after an Egyptian demon of destruction, and for good reason – every now and then, it keeps buzzing our planet, a little to close for comfort. The 275 meter object will pass at about 15 million km away from the Earth – the Moon, for example is much closer, at [...]
Wed, Oct 31, 2012
Vesta is “peppered” with carbon materials which researchers believe were left behind by asteroids gently striking its surface. Vesta is an asteroid itself – but one so large that some astronauts were actually thinking about declaring it a planet, or at least a protoplanet. It is the second largest asteroid in our solar system, second [...]
Thu, Sep 27, 2012
A Buddhist statue brought to Germany by a Nazi expedition to Tibet has been proven to be of extraterrestrial origin. Sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, right? Well, it isn’t. Known as the ‘Iron man’ the 24 cm high sculpture was carved out from a Chinga meteorite (rich in iron) found near the Mongolian-Russian border [...]
Wed, Sep 19, 2012
This four pound geological marvel, captioned above, is what’s commonly reffered to as a lunar meteorite. And like all things of rarity, it’s been recently listed for auction – the biggest chunk of moon rock yet. Experts believe it should sell around the $380,000 mark. Lunar meteorites are a special class of moon rocks. During [...]
Thu, Aug 9, 2012
Researchers have found evidence that the crater in case was formed when the ground was slammed by a massive meteorite, millions of years ago. Prince Albert crater Measuring about 25 kilometers across, Prince Albert crater was named after the peninsula in which it was discovered. Researchers never were really sure when it was formed, the [...]
Fri, May 25, 2012
A new study conducted by NASA indicates that large molecules containing carbon came to Earth from Mars – molecules which are a key ingredient for life as we know it. Studying meteorites that landed on Earth and originated on Mars, the Carnegie Institution for Science alongside NASA researchers concluded that the reduced carbon – carbon [...]
Tue, Jan 17, 2012
Well if we can’t go to Mars, it seems Mars is coming to us… at least some chunks of it. Scientists have reported a rather unusual invasion by Martians: meteorite-like chunks that fell from the Red Planet in Morocco last summer. This is the first time since 1962 that researchers have confirmed such a sample, [...]
Mon, Nov 14, 2011
You’re probably wondering what a Pallasite is; well Pallasites are is a type of iron meteorite, quite rare, made out of large olivine crystals in an iron-nickel matrix – and they look just fabulous. Olivine is a a magnesium iron silicate quite common in our planet’s subsurface, but which weathers fast when exposed to the surface. [...]
Sat, May 7, 2011
A recently analyzed 4.5 billion years old meteorite yields one of the oldest minerals known in our solar system: krotite. The mineral is not actually new, in that it was thought to be only a man-made constituent of some high-temperature concrete, according to study researcher Anthony Kampf, curator of Mineral Sciences at the Natural History [...]
Sun, Mar 6, 2011
Wherever it’s possible, life finds a way; the old saying seems to be more and more actual these days, with NASA and other space agencies reporting interesting discoveries that point towards life existing in many more other places other than our own planet. After rewriting the biology books with the arsenic eating microbe, NASA researchers [...]
Wed, Nov 10, 2010
That’s right people, all the life on this beautiful planet (yep, that includes you) could descend from alien zombies. Well, this is indeed a slight imagination leap, but what I’m talking about are viruses; dead viruses, to be more exact. Dead viruses who contained information, enough information to pave the way for lifeforms to appear. [...]
Fri, Oct 9, 2009
We’ve all seen at least one movie in which our planet is destroyed, but most of them were quite repetitive and kind of uninteresting. Our planet deserves so much more! Black holes Well, it seems the more we understand things about black holes, the more we find out things we don’t know, and the more [...]
Tue, Oct 6, 2009
In 1980, Luis Alvarez and his team shocked the whole world when they announced their theory that an asteroid impact that took place 65 millions years ago was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and much of that time’s living organisms. Despite the fact that they delivered substantial evidence, there are still some minor [...]
Sun, Jun 28, 2009
I’m really sorry I didn’t find out about this earlier, but better late than never. So, on June 23, several observers from Tucson, Arizona reported they noticed a bright fireball on the sky. As it turns out, it was rock from outer space that broke apart and took a dive in our planet’s atmosphere, a [...]
Wed, Mar 18, 2009
Scientists that analyzed meteorite dust made some discoveries that gave them clues about the ever standing mystery of how life works at its most basic, molecular level. This question has puzzled researchers for quite a while now and definitive answers are yet to be found. “We found more support for the idea that biological molecules, [...]
Thu, Oct 9, 2008
A very small asteroid exploded over the continent of Africa this week, confirming the prediction of astronomers. Despite the fact that nobody has seen and photographed the asteroid due to the fact that it entered in a very remote area, it was detected with an infrasound array in Kenya; it exploded without striking the Earth. [...]
Tue, Apr 1, 2008
After the “crash site” in Peru, meteorites keep the headlines again! This time, scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Aberdeen found the biggest meteorite to ever crash in the British islands. The scientists believe that a large meteorite hit northwest Scotland about 1.2 billion years ago near the Scottish town of [...]
Wed, Mar 12, 2008
Back in September, a meteorite crashed somewhere in Peru, scaring locals and digging a hole in the ground, but pleased scientists which had the opportunity of studying it. But it behaved so strangely that in fact it forces scientists to rethink the way alien objects behave when entering Earth’s atmosphere and when they hit out [...]
Mon, Mar 10, 2008
Astronomers from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario have spotted (with the aid of cameras, of course) a meteor falling to Earth; this is quite a rare occasion and scientists from many fields are eagerly awaiting the recovery of the meteorite and the start of the studies. They spotted a giant fireball Wednesday [...]
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Mon, May 20, 2013
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