Two Minerals Never Seen Before in Nature Discovered In an Asteroid That Fell to Earth

Materials never before seen in nature have been revealed by an analysis of a huge chunk of space rock.

Two new minerals have been analyzed and named, and a third is currently under consideration.

Scientists could use this discovery to learn more about the formation of asteroids and meteorites.

The minerals have been named elaiite and elkinstantonite, and their discovery was announced at the Space Exploration Symposium.

The chemistry of the rock is different when you find a new mineral. There are two minerals that are new to science in this meteorite.

A 15.2 ton boulder that was partially embedded in sand in a valley near the town of El Ali was recently identified as a meteorite.

It's unclear when it fell from the sky, but locals had named the rock "Nightfall", memorializing it in folklore, songs, and dance, and using it as an anvil for knife-sharpening.

After being intrigued by the strange, pitted rock,prospectors struck off some samples and sent them for analysis and classification at the University ofAlberta's meteorite collection.

After collaborating with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the California Institute of Technology, it was determined that Nightfall was an iron meteorite belonging to the IAB complex.

The iron IAB complex classification contains around 350 meteorites, and they are characterized by a predominantly iron-nickel composition, with small amounts of silicates like tiny raisins in a fruitcake. They're thought to have formed from an impact.

The team needed to study the chemical composition of the meteorite in order to classify it. Herd enlisted the help of a mineralogist who has been involved in describing other new minerals to describe some of the anomalies.

He said that he had at least two new minerals in there. That was amazing. It takes a lot more than that to say there is a new mineral.

There were iron-phosphorus-oxygen compositions in the minerals. El Ali's name is Elaliite and it has the formula Fe 2+ 8 Fe 3+. Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist at Arizona State University.

In the 1980s, similar minerals to these two had been synthesised in a laboratory setting, making them a lot easier to identify as new minerals. The two minerals are now classified and named after them.

Identification and classification of a third potential new mineral is still being done. The formation processes that could produce these minerals are being described in a paper.

"How you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of is my expertise," says Herd. I didn't think I would be involved in describing new minerals just because I worked on a meteorite.

Nightfall was taken from the place it had been for generations and weighed before being seized by the government. According to reports, it was moved to China, where it could be cut up and sold.

In order to get more pieces of the rock, the scientists are trying to track it down.

"There is more material out there, it just needs to get in the hands of scientists so that we can find some other new minerals," he said.

At the Space Exploration Symposium, the discovery was made.