Bernese researchers discover freshly fallen meteorite in Oman
Keystone-SDA
Researchers from Bern have recovered a freshly fallen meteorite in Oman. It is the second such find in which the Natural History Museum in Bern has been involved.
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The meteorite also contains a previously unknown mineral, the Natural History Museum Bern (NMBE) announced on Thursday. The data was recently submitted to the Meteoritical Society and the meteorite was included in the official meteorite register. The meteorite has been officially named Raja after the place where it fell. The meteorite originates from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
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Three new Swiss meteorites registered
The Ottoman-Swiss research team discovered the meteorite using cameras that have been pointed at the sky over the central desert of Oman since 2021. On December 23, 2023, they saw a fireball that was recorded by four cameras with a duration of 3.3 seconds. The researchers used these images to calculate the trajectory of the fragment that had fallen from space. Just 49 days later, they found the 26.8 gram meteorite near an abandoned drilling site.
Small meteorites are hard to find
Tests have now confirmed that it is the meteorite recorded by the camera. For the tests, isotope measurements were carried out in the Vue-des-Alpes deep laboratory in the Neuchâtel Jura.
According to the NMBE, small meteorites make up the majority of all meteorites that reach the Earth. However, because they are difficult to find, they are rarely recovered. “Raja is therefore an important contribution to our understanding of the overall flow of meteorites to Earth,” the museum continued.
The NMBE researchers also found a meteorite in the Ottoman desert in February 2023.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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