70% of Meteorites That Earth Has Endured May Come from 3 Mysterious Ancient Bodies.
According to Sci-News, two intriguing new studies have identified the “portrait” of the three main culprits that frequently bombard Earth with meteorites.
As many previous studies have shown, a group of meteorites known as chondrites accounts for about 80% of the meteorites that have struck our planet, primarily comprising L-chondrites and H-chondrites.
These two types of meteorites alone represent 70% of the space rocks that Earth has endured, including the event that caused the catastrophic ice age 466 million years ago.
Most meteorites impacting Earth originate from 3 shattered bodies – (Illustration AI: ANH THƯ).
In the first study led by Dr. Michael Marsset from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an age-dating method based on argon isotopes determined that all L-chondrite meteorites that have fallen to Earth share a common origin.
This origin is a small asteroid that collided with another body at supersonic speed approximately 450-470 million years ago, scattering its debris across the cosmos, some of which fell to Earth.
This event led to the formation of the Massalia asteroid family and contributed fragments that initiated a meteor shower.
Meanwhile, the second study led by Dr. Miroslav Brož from Charles University (Czech Republic) indicated that all L-chondrite and H-chondrite meteorites are linked to three events of fragmented space bodies occurring about 5.8, 7.6, and 40 million years ago.
Of these, the two more recent events were caused by asteroids from the Karin and Koronis families, while the 40 million-year event is related to an older Massalia asteroid.
The object from 40 million years ago could very well be a remnant of the body from 450-470 million years ago identified in the first study.
All these bodies reside in the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
“Our findings provide insights into the mysteries surrounding the origins of the most common meteorites that have collided with Earth and how these impacts may have shaped Earth’s history,” said Dr. Brož and his colleagues.
The aforementioned studies have just been published in the scientific journals Nature and Astronomy & Astrophysics.
