Rare meteorite older than the planets found in field

Fort Fun Indiana

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2017
91,170
52,328
2,645
Because, why not? This meteor formed before our earth formed. Scientists can learn about how the materials in our early solar system behaved.

Possibly some or even most of the organics on Earth were deposited due to meteorites like this one.

 
Not sure I understand ... the Earth formed at the same time as the solar system ... it kinda all happened together over a period of perhaps a billion years ... this meteorite may well represent the kinds of materials that formed the Earth, but the asteroid belt would be full of this stuff, it's poorly represented on Earth because this stuff burns up as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere ... it's the iron meteors that put dents in the Earth's crust ...

How did this wind up in England? ... that continental material is no where close to 4.6 billion years old ... in a hoof print ... on a gravel bed in East Sussex just outside the village of Piltdown, right? ...

Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen are ubiquitous throughout the known universe ... amino acids are common everyplace we look ... is there a good reason why these simple compounds would be completely absent on Earth, and only Earth? ... possible, just weird ...

Are we still looking for answers in that which is rare, when it is the mundane that proves the most exotic? ...
 
How did this wind up in England? ... that continental material is no where close to 4.6 billion years old ... in a hoof print ... on a gravel bed in East Sussex just outside the village of Piltdown, right? ...
Nope. "The meteorite was found in Gloucestershire" and, like all meteorites, it apparently fell from the sky, but
Unlike other space debris, this chunk of rock didn't endure the violent collisions and intense heat involved in the creation of the solar system's planets and moons.

Rather, the meteorite has "been sitting out there, past Mars, untouched, since before any of the planets were created," Shaun Fowler, a microscopist at Loughborough University, said in a statement
Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen are ubiquitous throughout the known universe ... amino acids are common everyplace we look ... is there a good reason why these simple compounds would be completely absent on Earth, and only Earth? ... possible, just weird ...
The Loughborough University link says more than the space.com one about this, but I'd agree both seem to lend undue credit to the creationist notion that life simply emerging from the so-called primordial soup was prohibitively improbable, given all the reaction ingredients were already at hand and available for millions of years.
The ancient rock is a rare example of a carbonaceous chondrite, a type of meteorite which often contains organic material. Fewer than 5% of meteorites which fall to Earth belong to this classification.

Identifying organic compounds would support the idea that early meteorites carried amino acids – the building blocks of life – to supply the Earth’s primordial soup where life first began.

“Carbonaceous chondrites contain organic compounds including amino acids, which are found in all living things,” said Director of Astrochemistry at EAARO Derek Robson who found the meteorite and who will soon join Loughborough University as an academic visitor for collaborative research.

“Being able to identify and confirm the presence of such compounds from a material that existed before the Earth was born would be an important step towards understanding how life began.”
 
Last edited:
Not sure I understand ... the Earth formed at the same time as the solar system ... it kinda all happened together over a period of perhaps a billion years ... this meteorite may well represent the kinds of materials that formed the Earth, but the asteroid belt would be full of this stuff, it's poorly represented on Earth because this stuff burns up as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere ... it's the iron meteors that put dents in the Earth's crust ...

How did this wind up in England? ... that continental material is no where close to 4.6 billion years old ... in a hoof print ... on a gravel bed in East Sussex just outside the village of Piltdown, right? ...

Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen are ubiquitous throughout the known universe ... amino acids are common everyplace we look ... is there a good reason why these simple compounds would be completely absent on Earth, and only Earth? ... possible, just weird ...

Are we still looking for answers in that which is rare, when it is the mundane that proves the most exotic? ...
Clearly it arrived more recently. Both the Sun and the asteroid belt bodies are older than Earth.

I don't think scientists think that amino acids were completely absent on Earth, but I think they think there more here than can be explained just from the materials that formed the Earth. Convincing evidence for this comes in the form of finding meteorites containing amino acids. Clearly they added to Earth's totals over the last 4.54 billion years, especially during the early and late bombardment periods.
 
How do you figure that? ... why wouldn't the planets and Sun coalesce at the same time using the same process ... or were there two different processes? ...
Yep, two different processes. Three, really, if you delineate by time, and differentiate between the first tiny clumps of matter and when the planets were virtually fully formed.

First, the Sun ignited in a rotating gas cloud, a dense region of which collapsed to form the Sun and ignite fusion at its core. After the Sun ignited and as the gas cloud became denser and spun faster and faster (preserving angular momentum), the protoplanetary disk flattened out a bit. Matter was now closer together and started clumping. It also started differentiating, with the makeup of elements closer to the baby Sun being heavier elements than the elements further from the baby Sun..

Naturally, the tiny clumps formed first (when this meteorite was formed). Only later did the Earth form at nearly the same mass it has today, percentage-wise (about 50-70 million years later).
 
Naturally, the tiny clumps formed first (when this meteorite was formed). Only later did the Earth form at nearly the same mass it has today, percentage-wise (about 50-70 million years later).
Another Carbonaceous chondrite was seen to fall in Mexico in 1969. It broke up in the atmosphere. Two tons of the thousands of pieces were recovered.
Subsequent studies have found isotopic ratios of krypton, xenon, nitrogen and some other elements whose forms are also unknown in the Solar System.
I wonder if there will be a similar search for the "horseshoe" chondrite since it seems to be recent.

.
 
But why oh why did that horse step on a meteorite?
Perhaps she'll die.
I thought the older than Earth meteorite (which is impossible b/c the universe and Earth are the same age) was found where the horse had stepped. Even a horse wouldn't step in atheist shit :wink:.
 
I thought the older than Earth meteorite (which is impossible b/c the universe and Earth are the same age) was found where the horse had stepped. Even a horse wouldn't step in atheist shit :wink:.
Please don't hijack and troll this thread with your religious vitriol.
 

Forum List

Back
Top