New analysis of a green fireball from the Oort Cloud that landed in Canada in February 2021 could reshape our understanding of the formation of Earth and the entire Solar System.
According to Sci-News, it was a 2 kg meteorite that penetrated the Earth’s atmosphere approximately 100 km north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, at 13:23:17 UTC on February 22, 2021.
It has been identified as an object originating from the Oort Cloud, a region believed to consist entirely of icy bodies and cold comets at the edge of the Solar System.
The object from the Oort Cloud entering Canada’s atmosphere captured by the Global Fireball Observatory camera at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA)
What came from there was expected to be ice, based on all previous scientific evidence, research, and theories about the Oort Cloud. However, the meteorite that fell in Canada was made of rock.
Scientists did not directly capture the meteorite that landed in 2021, but clear footage, images, and tracking data have helped clarify its nature.
The research team, led by Dr. Denis Vida, a meteorologist from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University in Ontario, Canada, stated that the meteorite penetrated deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere than other icy meteorites.
How it broke apart in the atmosphere, not far from the ground, further confirms it was rocky. All previous rock fireballs had approached Earth much closer.
“This discovery supports an entirely different model of Solar System formation – backing a less common idea that a significant amount of rocky material also exists alongside icy bodies in the Oort Cloud,” Dr. Vida explained.
He added: “This result cannot be explained by the currently favored models of Solar System formation. It completely changes the game.”
For a long time, there has been evidence supporting the theory that everything that constitutes the Solar System – including our own Earth, especially the seeds of oceans and life – has some deep origin from interstellar space, accumulating in the outermost belt of the Solar System and then merging into the materials of young planets.
The presence of a rocky object in the Oort Cloud suggests that a part of us may very well be made from a world that seemingly consists entirely of comets like snowballs and those giant icy meteorites. Perhaps there were perfect structural blocks there, ready for connection and directly contributing to the formation of planets.
The study has just been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
