Meteorites Their Impact on Science and History

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MeteoritesTheir Impact on Science and History

• Brigitte Zanda and Monica Rotaru

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The History of Meteorites
Ensisheim Meteorite, 1492
-One of the first observed falls -People carried
around pieces of the meteorite as good luck
charms -Advisors of king Maximilian declared the
stone to be a sign of divine grace and evidence
of a miracle
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Objects that Fall from the Sky

• - The Lucé stone was the first stone analyzed by
  chemical methods of the time.
• -In 1768 this stone was sent to the Institut de
  France where three chemists named Fourgeroux de
  Bonderoy, Cadet de Gassicourt, and
  Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier found the contents
  of the stone to be 55 vitrifiable earth, 6
  iron, and 8.5 sulfer
• -This did not seem like anything special so they
  dismissed it as a rock from the sky and instead
  think of it as a piece of sandstone that was hit
  by lightning which heated up the rock to melt
  part of it but not the interior.
• -When presented with similar rock, the chemists
  came to the same conclusions as before and did
  not change their minds.
• -The Agram Iron and Eichstadt Stone were two
  other objects to fall from the sky. Even though
  there were seven witnesses, this was still not
  enough to convince everyone that objects can fall
  from the sky.
• -It was not until 1794 in Siena where there was a
  shower of stones over the heads of many
  witnesses. At this point there was no denying
  that objects could indeed fall from the sky.

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Creation of the Universe
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Stardust
-Stardust is the matter that dying stars, red
giants, and super novae eject into the
interstellar medium. It condenses into solid
grains and contains the specific local isotopic
composition. -Stardust survives the processes of
the destruction of stars and the formation of new
solar systems.
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Stardust in Meteorites

• -Until the 1970s nobody was able to detect
  isotopic differences between lunar, terrestrial
  and meteoritic samples.
• -Seeing only similarities in the matter suggested
  that there was only one initially hot solar
  nebula.
• -In 1973 scientists were able to identify
  inclusions in the Allende meteorite that
  contained isotopic ratios which certain
  astrophysical models predicted for stars. This
  meteorite contained elements that could only form
  near the center of massive stars.
• -A similar discovery was found in the Murchison
  meteorite. The stardust in this meteorite had
  different types of compositions that signified
  two different types of supernovae.
• -All of the chemical elements present in grains
  of stardust have isotopic compositions which
  reflect the environments they were formed in.
  Their compositions differ from solar system
  material.