Scientists discover new mineral on meteorite found in 1969

[News_Editor]

Scientists discover new mineral on meteorite found in 1969

2011-04-06 05:04:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

HOUSTON, TEXAS (BNO NEWS) -- NASA on Tuesday announced that along with co-researchers from the United States, South Korea and Japan, a new mineral named "Wassonite" was found in one of the most historically significant meteorites recovered in Antarctica in December 1969.

Wassonite is among the tiniest, yet most important, minerals identified in the 4.5-billion-year-old sample. The research team, headed by NASA space scientist Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, added the mineral to the list of 4,500 officially approved by the International Mineralogical Association.

"Wassonite is a mineral formed from only two elements, sulfur and titanium, yet it possesses a unique crystal structure that has not been previously observed in nature," said Nakamura-Messenger.

Researchers found Wassonite surrounded by additional unknown minerals that are being investigated. The mineral is less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair or 50x450 nanometers. The discovery was made possible through NASA's transmission electron microscope, which is capable of isolating the Wassonite grains and determining their chemical composition and atomic structure.

The Yamato 691 enstatite chondrite meteorite was discovered in 1969, the same year as other landmark meteorites Allende and Murchison and the return of the first Apollo lunar samples. The meteorite likely may have originated from an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

Members of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition discovered nine meteorites on the blue ice field of the Yamato Mountains in Antarctica that year.

This was the first significant recovery of Antarctic meteorites and represented samples of several different types. As a result, the United States and Japan conducted systematic follow-up searches for meteorites in Antarctica that recovered more than 40,000 specimens, including extremely rare Martian and lunar meteorites.

"More secrets of the universe can be revealed from these specimens using 21st century nano-technology," Nakamura-Messenger added.

"Meteorites, and the minerals within them, are windows to the formation of our solar system," said Lindsay Keller, space scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Keller is the co-discoverer and principal investigator of the microscope used to analyze the Wassonite crystals. "Through these kinds of studies we can learn about the conditions that existed and the processes that were occurring then."

The new mineral's name was approved by the International Mineralogical Association. It honors John T. Wasson, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who is known for his achievements across a broad swath of meteorite and impact research, including the use of neutron activation data to classify meteorites and to formulate models for the chemical makeup of bulk chondrites.

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