A meteorite expert from the University of Alberta was part of a team of researchers that discovered at least two new minerals never before seen on Earth.
“In the course of doing the classification — describing this new rock for science — I came across some inclusions, some potential different, interesting minerals inside the meteorite.
What we’ve now discovered is there are at least two new minerals in this meteorite from Somalia that have never been discovered before.
The two minerals came from a 70-gram piece that was sent to the U of A for classification.
“That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.
“I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”.
Herd believes more minerals could be found if researchers can obtain more samples but, researchers say the meteorite appears to have been moved to China and its future is unknown. »