Rain of meteorites in the Spanish sky, not far from Grazalema, southern Spain, on the night of August 13 to 14. – Jorge Guerrero / AFP
    • 06/01/2016 at 12:44
    • updated

Hunted, collected, studied, shelled … meteorites soon will not, or hardly, secrets. The meteorite surveillance network FRIPON, officially launched Tuesday, is expected to identify all meteorites falling on the French territory and collect to draw valuable lessons. The météoritologue (yes, it’s a real job) at the National Museum of Natural History Brigitte Zanda explains what we can learn from these little bits of asteroids

& gt;. & Gt ; Read also: FRIPON, the new observatory to track meteors

Where do the meteor crashing into Earth

The meteorites are mostly fragments of asteroids. Some are fragments of the moon or Mars, and perhaps other planets or comets, but we’re not sure yet. These small bodies are formed very early in the formation of the solar system, such as sludge with which the planets formed, but are too small they stopped to evolve as the planets were forming. These older meteorites 4.568 billion years tell the story of the planets.



What do we see in these meteorites?

Each meteorite is a vision of a given location some point in the formation of the solar system. Some come from bodies that have melted after their formation, like Earth: the denser liquid flowed to the center and the others are effused on the surface. Thus we find meteorites of iron, from the nucleus of an asteroid. One can also identify meteorites are from Mars because they are composed of rare gases identical to those of the Martian atmosphere. The study can reconstruct the formation of Mars, as does the Curiosity rover but more accurately

& gt;. & Gt; Read also: The Guide to Mars, so backpacker

What tests do you do on meteorite fragments

We can be sawed to include in resin, polishing, then look under the microscope to analyze the different minerals. One can also make individual analyzes of minerals to see what balance exists between them, reconstruct the magmatic phenomena, determine the properties of matter with ionic probes. The collected meteorites integrate the national collection made available to researchers worldwide.



What can we learn from these analyzes?

We learn how have formed the Earth and other planets. For instance, why Mercury is so rich in iron and so dense? How to establish the differences in the formation of the solar system? It is found in meteorites organic molecules, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, necessary for life on Earth, and in particular that could have brought the water on our planet. This is also the origin of life on Earth that we will understand

Keywords:.