Scientists have analyzed the fragments of a meteorite that fell near Berlin on January 21, 2024 They came to the conclusion that the celestial body belonged to a very rare type of asteroid – achondrites (aubrites). The study published on the official website of the SETI Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
The found debris is fragments of a small asteroid 2024 BX1. The study with the help of an electron beam microprobe confirmed the typical mineralogical and chemical composition of the aubite-type achondrite. This class was named after the village of Aubres in France, where a similar meteorite fell in 1836.
According to experts, cliffs are difficult to find on the ground, as they look almost indistinguishable from ordinary earthly stones.
“Obrites do not look like what people usually think of as meteorites. Obrites are more like gray granite and are composed mainly of the magnesium silicates enstatite and forsterite. They contain almost no iron, and the vitreous crust, which is usually a good way to recognize meteorites, looks quite different from most other similar objects. This makes them difficult to detect in the field,” explained one of the researchers, Christopher Hamann.
The scientists noted that the aurites are rare guests on Earth. Less than 1% of meteorites falling on our planet are of this type.
