(Vancouver) Scientists studying a meteorite that landed in a woman’s bed in British Columbia last fall say it was deflected in that direction about 470 million years ago.
Posted yesterday at 9:10 p.m.
The small meteorite smashed through the ceiling of a woman’s residence in Golden, British Columbia, in October, landing on her pillow, next to where she had been sleeping moments earlier.
Philip McCausland, a lead researcher mapping the meteorite’s journey, said on Monday the 4.5 billion-year-old rock was determined to have collided with something around 470 million years ago. , breaking into fragments and changing the trajectory of some pieces.
McCausland, who is an adjunct professor at Western University in London, Ontario, said the meteorite is of great scientific importance as it will allow researchers to study how materials from the asteroid belt arrive on Earth. .
“There are 50,000 to 60,000 identified meteorites around the world today, but most have no context. We don’t really know where they come from,” he said.
“In cases where we have known orbits, where they’ve been observed well enough that we can reconstruct the orbit before it hits Earth’s atmosphere, we can actually (determine) where they came from in the asteroid belt. Golden is one of those,” McCausland said, referring to where the meteorite landed.
The researchers determined that the meteorite is an L-type chondrite, one of the types of meteorites that commonly fall on Earth. Despite this, he said only about five L-type chondrites have known orbits.
McCausland said the Canadian team was now working with scientists from Switzerland, the UK, the US and Italy to learn more about the meteorite and its path to Golden.
“We know we’re always going to get something interesting out of it,” McCausland said. We actually want to get a good feel for how things are delivered from the asteroid belt, and that’s a useful part of the build. »
Most of the meteorite was returned to Ruth Hamilton, the woman who had a narrow escape, and Mr McCausland said it was up to her to decide what to do with it.
He believes the rock has cultural significance to Canada, but that it is up to Mme Hamilton to decide if she wants to keep it, sell it or give it away. If she sells it to an international buyer, she will have to go through the export process, he said.
Mme Hamilton said she hasn’t decided what to do with the meteorite yet. It is currently in a safe.
“I don’t have any plans at the moment, but once they’re done analyzing it, I’ll get all the documentation that proves it’s a meteorite,” she said. It will officially be called the Golden meteorite. »
Before her roof is permanently repaired this spring, Mme Hamilton said she intended to remove the section where the meteorite crashed to preserve it with the rock.
Mr McCausland said the research will likely wrap up in May and the scientists will then publish their work in a scientific journal.
“Whenever something like this happens, I like to tell people that it could happen to any of us; anyone can find a meteorite. One is unlikely to fall through your roof, but it can happen, McCausland said. It’s nature and it’s a reminder that we’re part of something bigger. »
This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and The Canadian Press News Fellowships.