Unique discovery of a team led by a Greek scientist: New source of water on Earth

A meteorite 470 million years old, thanks to a three-year scientific study and data search that began in distant 2013, reveals another potential source of water on Earth.

“Many times we neglect the effort to search for such minerals in a meteorite because in theory we may not expect them there,” said Dr. Ioannis Baziotis, Assistant Professor at the Agricultural University of Athens, describing the process of scientific research that led to a unique discovery of hydrated minerals in a historical meteorite.

“The results of the research are unique to the category of typical chondritic meteorites. “For the first time we have the discovery of the hydrated mineral daisy, which with its presence shows another -potentially- source of water in the early Earth”, explains Dr. Baziotis, who led an international team of scientists.

This group of scientists, consisting of Greek, American, Chinese and French scientists, discovered and characterized a unique mineralogical sum in the Kakowa meteorite. A historical meteorite specimen can be found in the large collection of meteorites of the Vienna Museum of Natural History.

“Kakowa meteorite is a typical L6 cartilage that fell on May 19, 1858 in Romania and according to historical records, was recovered just minutes after its fall. “Thanks to the research that was done, we discovered unique findings of hydrated minerals and a large number of minerals of high pressure in Kakowa”, the Greek scientist explained.

The publication of the results of the group’s study on the subject of Planetary Science is entitled “Unique evidence of fluid alteration in the Kakowa (L6) ordinary chondrite” and was published in the journal Scientific Reports of the Nature Publishing Group (Springer Nature) – https: // rdcu.be/cLaRO and the element that makes it unique is that “… it expands our knowledge that is recorded in meteorites and is related to both the processes of alteration and transformation due to shock”, emphasizes Dr. Baziotis.

Absence of water means absence of life

“It was two collisions of incredible shock! The observations we made allowed us to “reconstruct” the story of the Kakowa meteorite, during which molten veins formed as a result of a violent collision in Kakowa’s mother body, followed by a milder collision with another asteroid during “hydrated minerals penetrated into the cracks”, says characteristically Dr. Ioannis Baziotis.

“The plethora of high-pressure minerals found in the molten veins helped us assess the severity and conditions of the first collision 470 million years ago in the mother body from which the Kakowa meteorite originated,” he added.

Meteors are rare objects, containing valuable information about the birth and evolution of our solar system. They retain evidence of those processes that took place in asteroids during the first millions of years of our solar system’s history. These asteroids were heated by the decay of radioactive isotopes and the subsequent release of heat, leading to their thermal transformation, and the subsequent release of fluids. At the same time, they suffered “multiple collisions that left their mark on the minerals of the meteorites”.

The history of water in our solar system is a matter of great interest, precisely because of its role in the beginning of life on Earth. “By showing for the first time that the parent bodies of typical chondrites release enough water to form hydrated minerals, it adds another – potentially – important source for the origin of water on Earth,” says Dr. Ioannis Baziotis. The other two sources of water on Earth may be comets and carbonaceous asteroids.

An opportunity at 69477 for a “Eureka”

“Now, with the specific discovery of the daisy, a hydrated mineral that belongs to the calcareous mica with a percentage that reaches 4-5% by weight. in water, we can say that for the first time such a mineral – with a clear extraterrestrial isotopic signature – is found in typical chondrites “, explains the Greek scientist, emphasizing the peculiarity of the scientific discovery.

“It is a rarity that out of a total of 69,477 meteorites (according to the latest official record in the Meteoritical Society database), typical chondrites – such as the Kakowa meteorite -” reach “59,192, or more than 85%.” , adds Dr. Baziotis.

This meteorite has an important peculiarity since it was not “infected” when it fell to Earth. “Some of the meteorites have been recovered from Antarctica or the warm deserts (eg the Sahara), however, the most ‘fresh’ meteorites are the ones that man saw falling to Earth, and collected shortly after their fall. . “They are the ones who have avoided the so-called alteration in the earthly environment”, he points out.

Collaboration for discovery

The study was launched at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, as part of the EU-funded SYNTHESYS project, to investigate the characteristics created after an asteroid impact.

And the members of his team California Institute of Technology, USA, performed advanced microanalytical methods to characterize the mineralogy, chemical composition, isotopic ratios of oxygen and lead, of this unique hydrated mineralogical sum. “The more methods we used to characterize these exotic materials, the more confident we were about the reliability of our analyzes and the extraterrestrial origin of the minerals,” said Professor Paul Asimow, head of the Caltech team that worked under guidance of the Greek scientist.

“What was discovered today could not be found 50 years ago … Practically, thanks to scientific development, every decade a new discovery would be possible. “You never know what you’re going to discover if you do not make an effort to study a meteorite, and especially if you do not insist on further exploring the minerals that may be contained within it,” he said. Baziotis.

The meteorite entered the Vienna Museum of Natural History shortly after its recovery in 1858. Kakowa is on display in the meteorite room at the Vienna Museum of Natural History in Austria, and the only meteorite recovered from Greece is on display in the same room. territory in the distant 1818, the so-called “Seres”.

“Through hard scientific work we have managed to prove that this material is extraterrestrial. The agony was enormous. We waited day by day for the results to come from California. A specific number in particular, so that we can say with certainty now, our “found”. “This means that we are in front of 0.0016% of the meteorites that carry this rare mineral!”, Concludes Dr. Baziotis.

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