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Why are meteorites that "wander" to the earth so precious
china-meteorite2026-01-13 17:34:24Meteorite News49Source: china meteorite
At about 2 a.m. on November 29, citizens in Zhumadian, Luohe, Nanyang, Zhoukou and other places in Henan Province reported that they saw unknown objects streaking across the sky, moving fast, accompanied by loud noises. According to the on-site video footage, a white light flashed in the sky, and the night was instantly illuminated as bright as day. This incident was judged by everyone to be a fire meteor falling event.
Stars fall like rain, brilliant like fireworks, and whenever meteors cross the sky, people who like romance will face the sky to make wishes. But meteors do not bring meteorites, they are meteorites only when fire meteor fragments fall to the ground.
When a meteor passes by, seekers will appear in various deep mountains and remote areas and Gobi deserts to find parts that have not been burned, and they are called "meteorite hunters". In this issue of Science Gathering, we invited Zhang Xun, a "meteorite hunter" who has traveled all over the world to search for meteorites, who is also a director of the Shanghai Astronomical Society and the founder of Wuyunfang Meteorite Studio, who will uncover more secrets of meteorites for students.
East Wuzhumuqin flag meteorite
It is not easy to land "aliens"
The vast majority burn to ash in the atmosphere
Over the past 4.6 billion years, the Earth has experienced numerous celestial impacts, most of them from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and very few from other planets in the solar system, such as the Moon and Mars.
According to the law of gravity, there will be interactions between any matter in space. When smaller substances such as planetary debris or cosmic dust approach the Earth, they are attracted to the Earth's surface. In the solar system, many celestial bodies make a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and by an extremely fortuitous chance, it "wanders" to Earth and enters the Earth's atmosphere by mistake, ending its space journey.
In the final stage of flight, the fire meteor will rub and burn violently with the air, producing dazzling light and a huge roar, limited by the speed of propagation and dissipation, humans cannot hear the sound at the bottom of the atmosphere, but can see its light. Sometimes, celestial bodies will shatter into many small celestial bodies, break into the atmosphere at the same time, rub to generate heat and burn under the action of oxygen, forming a trajectory across the night sky.
The fire meteor dragged its tail across the sky for a short time, and the instant bloom almost exhausted all its splendor, and only a very small number did not burn and could have some remnants, and finally "guest" the earth to form a meteorite.
Therefore, the so-called meteorite is the fragments of asteroids that fall to the earth, but not every asteroid can become a meteorite.
As old as the solar system
Touch 4.6 billion years of time
To date, more than 40,000 meteorite samples have been collected around the world.
In the early days, scientists divided meteorites into three categories: stone meteorites, iron meteorites and stone iron meteorites according to their chemical composition. Stone meteorites, accounting for 97.5% of the total number of known meteorites, are mainly composed of silicates; followed by iron meteorites, accounting for 2.4% of the total number of known meteorites, and the main composition is iron-nickel alloys; The least is called stone iron meteorites, accounting for only 0.1% of the total number of meteorites, composed of silicates and iron-nickel alloys.
Among them, one of the major categories of stone meteorites is called "chondrites", and the vast majority of meteorites found so far are it, which is characterized by a large number of millimeter-sized silicate spheres inside. Scientists have conducted chondrometric analysis of chondrites and found that their age is about 4.6 billion years, indicating that chondrites are as old as the solar system, and they are the most primitive material formed at the same time as the solar system, directly condensed from the embryonic nebula of the solar system. I can't help but sigh: "Meteorites in your hands are like touching 4.6 billion years of time!" ”
In ancient times, it was believed that all disasters in the world would be warned in advance by changes in the sky, so since the birth of human society, there have been observations of astronomical phenomena. Looking at China's 5,000-year long history, there have been people who specialized in observing astronomical phenomena throughout the dynasties. From the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, China has departments and personnel to observe astronomy, and the dynasties have different names, such as the highest official of astronomy in the Eastern Han Dynasty was Taishi Ling, such as the Tang Dynasty had a Taishi Bureau, and then the Qin Tianjian, which was common in film and television dramas, was an ancient institution responsible for astronomical observation and calendar calculation.
It is proud that during the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago, our ancestors drew the world's earliest astrological map.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there have been four large-scale meteorite rains in our country, namely in Jilin City, Jilin Province on March 8, 1976, Suizhou, Hubei Province on April 15, 1986, Juancheng, Shandong Province on February 15, 1997, and Xining City, Qinghai Province on February 11, 2012. Since the fifties of the last century, our country has begun to study meteorites.
Learn about the universe through meteorites
Explore the origin of life
Although the meteorite is not impressive, it is a true alien in the sense of the word, bringing us a lot of precious cosmic information, and is a rock mineral specimen from outer space, affectionately called "archaeological samples of the solar system" by scientists.
In addition to the lunar rock samples retrieved by humans from the moon, meteorites are the only rock samples other than the earth that can be directly studied, and have also become irreplaceable specimens for human research on the solar system, with immeasurable scientific research value.
At present, meteorites are an important field of astrochemistry research, which can help us understand the chemical composition and physicochemical environment of the asteroid belt, the moon, Mars and other stars, and then estimate the age of stars, explore the chemical evolution of early life, predict the consequences of planetary impacts, and can also be used to explore the mysteries of the formation of the solar system. It is also the original information for studying celestial bodies in outer space, and has high scientific research value for human beings to go out of the earth and into space.
Over billions of years, meteorites have gone through the evolution of the solar system and recorded a lot of data. Meteorites are precious and rare physical specimens of the stars of the solar system that humans directly know, and some of them have combinations of minerals that are not found or common on Earth.
How did life originate on Earth? There are many explanations in the scientific community. Meteorites are thought to be remnants of the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago, which is important for scientific research on the early origins of humans. A few years ago, an international scientific team detected ribose, essential for life, in meteorites for the first time, a discovery that may indicate that chemical reactions within asteroids (the parent body of many meteorites) can create some of the components of life, and that asteroid impacts on ancient Earth may be very important for the origin of life, which provides a new possibility for exploring the origin of mankind.
Of course, it should be noted that these days, in addition to sending precious gifts, foreign visitors sometimes bring disasters. For example, about 65 million years ago, a meteorite hit the Earth and brought a devastating cataclysm, followed by an overwhelming amount of dust, volcanic eruptions, and melting ice and snow...... It was not only the dinosaurs that were destroyed, but most of the animals and plants on the earth were destroyed.
Martian meteorite (left) and lunar meteorite at the Shanghai Planetarium
News +
Don't blindly look for meteorites, the possibility of "getting rich" is small
After the "meteorite" fell in Zhumadian, Henan, it has recently attracted a large number of "meteorite treasure hunters". Thousands of people searched around in the mountains, forests, farmland, vacant land, etc., and some netizens from other places came to earn traffic online through live broadcasts, video shooting, etc.
This brings a certain degree of pressure to local forest fire prevention and risks to local epidemic prevention and control, causing headaches for local government departments.
For everyone's method of finding meteorites, experts said that even if you try to hunt for treasure with instruments and equipment, it is almost impossible to find meteorites without accurate positioning.
When a meteorite enters the atmosphere from outer space, it moves at a speed of about 17 kilometers per second, which is difficult for even high-end aircraft to reach at present. Every second difference, the position of the meteorite changes so much that it is impossible to determine where it fell with the naked eye or sound alone. Generally speaking, professionals need official data to find falling meteorites, and the monitoring network determines the location, speed, and direction of the meteorite, and confirms the final landing area of the meteorite through scientific calculations. However, the fire meteor event in Zhumadian, Henan Province does not have much official data support, and it is unknown whether this meteorite can have fragments on the ground, and it is very difficult to collect some monitoring data and visits.
Ordinary people may not know what meteorites look like at all, and looking for meteorites with just a passion is almost looking for a needle in a haystack. If a stone meteorite like the one that fell in Mangui Village, Yunnan Province on June 1, 2018, fell in the villagers' courtyards or farmland, it was more likely to be found. Under normal circumstances, if it falls in the ocean, deep mountains, deserts, and forests, it is basically difficult to find. In order to find a meteorite, choose to go deep into dangerous places, and even bring life worries, you have to think twice.
Even if the meteorite that fell to the ground is found, its value needs to be assessed. Ordinary spherical meteorites have been found in large numbers, and their scientific research value and market value are not high. For the news of a large number of "selling meteorites to get rich" on the Internet, everyone should also treat it rationally.
In scientific research departments or museums, through more meaningful displays and research, more people can not only see meteorites and understand the mysteries of the universe, but also help mankind unlock the locks of the vast universe, which is probably the real wish of these "aliens".
Zhang Bo shows a large slice of the Esquel meteorite
This article is the original work of Qianjiang Evening News, without permission, it is prohibited to reprint, copy, excerpt, rewrite and carry out network dissemination and other copyright use of all works, otherwise this newspaper will pursue the legal responsibility of the infringer through judicial channels.
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