A meteorite, as a substance, is solid extraterrestrial material that has survived passage through Earth’s atmosphere and reached the surface, typically classified into stony (chondrites and achondrites), iron, and stony-iron types based on mineralogical and chemical composition. Chondritic meteorites preserve primitive nebular components such as chondrules and refractory inclusions, often with CI-like bulk solar abundances for nonvolatile elements. Iron meteorites consist predominantly of Fe-Ni alloys (kamacite and taenite) and may exhibit Widmanstätten patterns reflecting slow cooling in differentiated parent bodies. Meteorites are key samples for cosmochemistry, isotopic dating, and constraining early Solar System processes and planetary differentiation.
Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world—possibly as big as the moon or even Mars—orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble. Now, in a paper published in the journal ...
Planetary Sciences
22 hours ago
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When the solar system formed, a disk of gas and dust orbited the young sun. Over the course of millions of years, the dust gradually clumped together to form kilometer-sized chunks known as planetesimals. Some grew into planets, ...
Planetary Sciences
May 22, 2026
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The possibility of life on other planets is one of the biggest mysteries in science. But what would happen if we actually found it? Our scientists are preparing for this possibility by helping to develop a new system that ...
Astrobiology
Apr 20, 2026
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In 2024, NASA's Perseverance rover found surprising levels of Nickel in the Martian bedrock of an ancient river channel, called Neretva Vallis, which flowed into the Jezero crater. A new study, published in Nature Communications, ...
Meteorite hunters fanned out across a wide swath of Ohio on Thursday, hoping to collect fragments of an estimated 7-ton (6,350 kilograms) space rock that crashed into Earth this week after a dazzling fireball that was seen ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 20, 2026
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The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) has barely begun observations and is already wowing us. Images like its Cosmic Treasure Chest have us anticipating even more cosmic glory. And when the observatory sent out 800,000 alerts ...
Astronomy
Mar 11, 2026
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New tools unlock new discoveries in science. So when a new type of non-destructive technology becomes widely available, it's inevitable that planetary scientists will get their hands on it to test it on some meteorites. A ...
Astrobiology
Feb 4, 2026
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When a meteor streaks across the sky, it's not just beautiful. It's nature's way of delivering a time capsule to Earth. Contained within are hints about the very beginning of the solar system and how planets, including our ...
Astrobiology
Nov 27, 2025
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On Sunday November 2, people in eastern Victoria witnessed a bright streak across the sky followed by a loud sonic boom that felt like an earthquake. The event was captured by security cameras and mobile phones.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 13, 2025
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Buried deep in Greenland's ice sheet lies a puzzling chemical signature that has sparked intense scientific debate. A sharp spike in platinum concentrations, discovered in an ice core (a cylinder of ice drilled out of ice ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 19, 2025
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