Discovery of a rare meteorite older than the Solar System

I thought about the Mahdi

A recent study, published on January 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy, presented an analysis revealing evidence of a rare compound within the "interstellar grains" in a space rock belonging to the Allende meteorite.

Scientists have never believed that such a compound could exist, in terms of its age preceding the life of our solar system and its mechanism of integration with the components of space rocks.

Older than the solar system
Scientists from the Department of Physics and the McDonnell Center for Space Science at Washington University in the United States of America have discovered "interstellar grains" - which are defined as very small portions of a "interstellar" solid - preceding our Solar System.

The grains were found in a space rock of the remains of an Allende meteorite that fell in a hail of fiery fragments half a century ago over the Mexican desert in 1959, ending an epic journey that lasted for billions of years and perhaps much more.

The researchers called it the "pre-astrocellular granule", which ranges between five and seven billion years old, that is, it precedes our solar system, which is estimated to be only 4.6 billion years old, a discovery that puts us in front of a substance dating back to the pre-primitive period in space science.

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Researchers have discovered that these "pre-astral granules" have a structure that differs from what we know from interstellar materials, as they are made of silicon carbide (SiC) and have been combined with meteorite components.

Scientists have explained this, based on the concept of the origin of the solar system, that these granules were not able to remain independent under the conditions that prevailed in that period of high temperature - more than 1500 K (1227 ° C, 1 ° C equals 273 K).

This heat was accompanied by a large concentration of gases and burning dust, which necessitated its merging with a mineral mixture rich in calcium and aluminum, which is considered one of the oldest solids that formed in the solar system.

solve the puzzle
The team of researchers relied on the analysis of the noble gas isotopes to study the formation and development of the early solar system, and they had twenty milligrams of rock "Curious Marie", one of the pieces of the Allende comet to work on, which is a relatively large sample from the perspective of cosmic chemistry.

They gradually heated it, and measured the formation of four different noble gases released in successive stages depending on the target temperature. All results indicated the presence of an unexpected chemical mixture of silicon carbide fused into a medium of calcium and aluminum.

Noble gases are a group of chemical elements with similar properties. In extreme conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, and single atoms. In addition, their chemical effectiveness is very low. Noble gases include helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radioactive radon.

The "Kyrias Marie" rock is a special piece of the Allende Meteorite, and is found in the Robert A. Center collection. Pritzker Meteorology and Polar Studies at the Chicago Field Museum, named after this in honor of the chemist Marie Curie.

This study opens the door to several questions about the validity of the current theories about the origin of the solar system and the conditions associated with it, which calls for more extensive research on these "pre-star grains" and their distribution in primitive meteorite classes and their relationship with other meteorites.