Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Meteorites found on Earth are of 3 main types:
Iron meteorites – almost completely made of metal
Stony meteorites – mostly made of silicate material
Stony-iron meteorites -the most mysterious and rarest of all kind. These have stone and metal in equal parts.
A type of stony-iron meteorite are mesosiderites. Their chemistry suggests an origin from both the stony crust and the molten metallic core of an asteroid. Strangely it does not have the components of the mantle layer in between making the origin mysterious.
Scientists analyzed five such mesosiderites unearthed from Chile, Iowa and northwest Africa.
Studies suggested that their materials mixed in the molten core of an asteroid with a diameter same as Vesta (550 km). Physical features on Vesta, captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, also match the impacts of this collision.
These were likely formed when Vesta, the brightest asteroid in the sky, experienced a huge impact. The impact happened more than 4.5 billion years ago, when young Vesta and a chunk of rock collided, and it went all the way to Vesta's core.
Two further impacts, 2 billion and 1 billion years ago dislodged these rocks from Vesta. Sending the rare exotic meteorites towards Earth.
Meteorites found on Earth are of 3 main types:
Iron meteorites – almost completely made of metal
Stony meteorites – mostly made of silicate material
Stony-iron meteorites -the most mysterious and rarest of all kind. These have stone and metal in equal parts.
A type of stony-iron meteorite are mesosiderites. Their chemistry suggests an origin from both the stony crust and the molten metallic core of an asteroid. Strangely it does not have the components of the mantle layer in between making the origin mysterious.
Scientists analyzed five such mesosiderites unearthed from Chile, Iowa and northwest Africa.
Studies suggested that their materials mixed in the molten core of an asteroid with a diameter same as Vesta (550 km). Physical features on Vesta, captured by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, also match the impacts of this collision.
These were likely formed when Vesta, the brightest asteroid in the sky, experienced a huge impact. The impact happened more than 4.5 billion years ago, when young Vesta and a chunk of rock collided, and it went all the way to Vesta's core.
Two further impacts, 2 billion and 1 billion years ago dislodged these rocks from Vesta. Sending the rare exotic meteorites towards Earth.
