Dr Ashley King, a researcher in the Planetary Materials Unit at the Natural History Museum, UK, presented the findings at Science UK, Europe’s longest-running science festival, which takes place in a different part of the UK each year. The meteorite, known as the Winchcombe meteorite, hit a road in Gloucestershire in February last year. The 1-pound (0.5-kilogram) meteorite was recovered in about 12 hours, avoiding contamination with Earth’s minerals and water.
Dr Ashley-King said the study found that water made up 12 per cent of the meteorite sample and that the composition of this water was very similar to that in Earth’s oceans.
Dr King explained: “One of the big questions we have in planetary science is where does the water on Earth come from? One of the likely places is through comets or asteroids, where there is a lot of ice.”
IT House learned that the Winchcombe meteorite is a 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Fragments of the meteorite are on display at the Natural History Museum in London on May 17, 2021.
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