A serendipitous discovery in a recently found meteorite has provided astronomers with a unique window into the very distant past of the solar system and how different it was back then. Today, Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt, and it is classified as a dwarf planet. But new research suggests that there was another equally large asteroid in the past.
As reported in Nature Astronomy, the findings come from the unusual composition of a piece of the Almahata Sitta meteorite, where the team found a mineral known as amphibole. This can only be created at a certain range of temperatures and pressures, and with a prolonged and significant presence of water. This is the first time that such a mineral has been identified in a meteorite.
Study finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
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