Meteorite found in Sahara desert may be 1st evidence of lost solar system world
https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/meteorite-found-in-sahara-desert-may-be-1st-evidence-of-lost-solar-system-world
Meteorite found in Sahara desert may be 1st evidence of lost solar system world
https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/meteorite-found-in-sahara-desert-may-be-1st-evidence-of-lost-solar-system-world
5 Comments
Could it have been a second moon?
Huh, interesting. So they believe that this meteorite may have come from a planet between the size of the Moon and Mars that may have orbited the Milky Way during the very early years? Imagine if they find similar meteorites on Mars, it may not mean much but that would be so intriguing.
They’re not saying the meteorite is from there exactly, but one such “lost world” would be Theia, the planet that crashed into the early Earth, or “Earth Mark I”. The surface of Mark I was destroyed and a large fraction of the planet was ripped away into space.
When the dust settled (literally) there was Earth Mark II (this planet) and the moon.
the reason this is significant is that the early solar system had more planets than it does now. the leading theory is that a fifth rocky planet existed between Mars and the asteroid belt and was ejected or destroyed during the gravitational chaos of Jupiter’s migration. if this meteorite’s composition doesn’t match any known parent body it could be a direct fragment of that lost world. that’s not a small claim.
All that lost potential, it could of grown up to be like Earth, or Jupiter