Like finding a needle in a haystack, an expedition found a meteorite that has been buried in the Antarctic ice for tens of millennia. The cosmic bullet, one of the heaviest found throughout history, has amazed researchers.
Throughout eons, Antarctica, just like the rest of planet Earth, has been the direct target of meteorites that, because of their size, managed to bypass the atmosphere and ultimately touch the Earth’s surface. But Antarctica preserves them almost intact due to its extremely low temperatures and ice layers.
Since the search for meteorites began, 45,000 have been found in Antarctica. It hasn’t been easy, often it’s a serendipity where the movements of glaciers uncover the cosmic rocks; however, directly finding such objects is very complicated.
The Meteorite Has Been Buried in Ice for Millenia
Normally, expeditions have to comb through the ice layers meticulously, even with the possibility of finding nothing. That’s why, in 2022, a search system using artificial intelligence and machine learning from satellite images was developed, to determine the parts of Antarctica where it’s more likely that clusters of meteorites have settled. It was in one of those critical points thrown by AI where a group of space rocks was discovered; among them is a 7.6-kilogram bullet.
This is the first expedition that uses AI data and has been successful, so more meteorites from the asteroid are expected to be uncovered from the Antarctic ice. The researchers who developed the machine learning system estimated that there could be up to 500,000 meteorites in the ice layers of the frozen continent, which means that only 15% has been recovered and analyzed so far.
The 7.6-kilogram meteorite was recovered from an accumulation of similar rocks buried in the Nils Larsen ice area near Princess Elisabeth Antarctic station. They found five meteorites, but the most outstanding one is the aforementioned due to its mass, which is similar to a large melon.
“Size does not necessarily matter when it comes to meteorites, and even tiny micrometeorites can be incredibly valuable from a scientific point of view,” said expedition scientist María Valdes, a meteorologist at the Field Museum of Chicago. “But, of course, finding a large meteorite like this is rare and really exciting,” she concluded.
According to researchers, this and other space rocks have been buried for tens of thousands of years and have come to the surface due to the agitated movement of glaciers. Nonetheless, precipitation, wind, and air under the ice have managed to keep them in perfect condition and will be analyzed for more information about them.
“The objects come from the asteroid belt and likely fell into the Antarctic blue ice several tens of thousands of years ago,” said expedition scientist Ryoga Maeda. “Studying meteorites helps us understand our place in the universe,” said Valdes. “The larger the sample size of meteorites we have, the better we can understand our Solar System and better understand ourselves.”
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera.
