Billionly millions of years ago, with the planets in full formation process, the solar system was a chaotic and extremely violent region, with the numerous planet candidates disputing the privilege of occupying stable orbits around the sun. The majority of the majority of … They, however, did not succeed, and were absorbed or directly destroyed in catastrophic collisions against the few worlds they had managed to highlight and become larger and more massive, which are those that have survived until today.
Some small fragments of those spoiled protoplanets, scattered in space for the tremendous impacts, have lasted to this day, and a small number of them has ended up falling to the earth and being discovered by scientists who are dedicated to the ‘hunt’ of space rocks.
Different from others
The vast majority of meteorites that fall to our planet are either fragments of large known asteroids, or ‘torn’ rocks of the surface of the moon, marte or mercury that came here in a kind of ‘cosmic carambola’, after being projected to space by some collision against their worlds of origin and ended on earth after thousands or millions of years of space wandering. When they find them, scientists classify these extraterrestrial rocks according to their composition and structure. But there are 0.2 percent of them that do not fit with any known classification. These are ‘exceptions’ or ‘anomalies’ that baffle researchers and challenge their attempts to understand.
One of those anomalies is ‘NWA 15915’, a strange meteorite discovered in Algeria in February 2023. Its chemical composition does not coincide with that of any known celestial body, and the scientists who investigate it believe that it could be one of those scarce remnants of an ancient protoplanet whose existence was ‘erased’ by a cataclysmic event thousands of millions of years ago.
Similar to Mercury
During the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held just a few days ago in The Woodland, Texas, the specialist in electronic microscopy Jennifer Mitchell, from the University of Minnesota, explained that the geological firm of NWA 15915 suggests that it comes from a world that looks like, but that it is not the same, to Mercury. In fact, when Mitchell and his colleagues examined the meteorite discovered that its composition was not the same as that of the first planet of the Solar System, although its structure and magnetic characteristics indicate that it must have been forming in a very similar and close environment and near the Sun. If these preliminary analyzes are confirmed, NWA 15915 could be the first tangible evidence of a missing planet.
Specifically, the intriguing meteorite is distinguished from mercury, and from all other worlds in our system, for its unique composition, mainly of clinopyroxen rich in magnesium and without a trace of olivine or plagioclase, two very common minerals in meteorites.
During the same conference, Mitchell also presented a second ‘anomalous’ meteorite and with very similar characteristics, although with different magnetic properties. This is ‘Ksar Ghilane 022’ and was found in Tunisia in 2023. Could it be another fragment of the same unknown planet? Although the temptation is a lot, the researcher insists that more analysis is needed to be able to say whether this rock proceeds, or not, from the same place as NWA 15915. An enigma that only the next investigations can solve.
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