In January of 2000 , a large meteorite exploded over British Columbia , with fragments landing over the frozen surface of Tagish Lake . After careful analysis , it has been discovered that the meteorite is the first documented physical object to jaunt to Earth from the edge of the solar system .
Finding an physical object coming from the Kuiper Belt , the region beyond the orbital cavity of Neptune , is not just a curious discovery , it actually reinforces the theory of a primal bickering between the four gasoline giant planets ( Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune ) and a mysterious fifth one that waskicked out .
Researchers from Charles University in Prague and Southwest Research Institute in Boulder , Colorado , have free a study , publish in theAstrophysical Journal , that tries to explain the origin of the Tagish Lake meteorite . According to their inquiry , grounds of a population of primal Kuiper belt objects ( KBOs ) in the inner solar organization can only be explicate by some bypast gravitational instability .
The squad modeled how these KBOs , many of which are D - type asteroids , move from the boundary of the solar system to the asteroid belt , which is between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter . It is believe the Tagish Lake meteorite is a fragment of one of these five hundred - type asteroids .
By simulating the untested solar system and including a 5th planet the sizing of Neptune , the researchers were able to get the right amount of five hundred - type asteroid near Earth . These asteroid could n’t have organize where they are now found , so a mechanics must have move them nearer . Jupiter and Saturn kicking out a 5th planet seems to produce the ripe amount of hurly burly .
“ For a short time in the solar organisation ’s story , you have elephantine planets receive one another while surrounded by this braggart ocean of comets , " co - author Bill Bottke toldNew Scientist . " Things were very dramatic for a short sentence . "
The meteorite is considered one of the well preserved in the world , with very little contamination from terrene life story . It is a fragment from the very dawn of the solar organization , and the close we can get to analyze a bit of Pluto , Eris , or Makemake .
The Tagish Lake has already beenin the newsfor being rich in amino group acids , the molecules that make proteins , and for register grounds that its parent asteroid was in all likelihood rich in water . scientist are considering the possibility that this class of asteroids bring a role in the abundance of water and liveliness atom on Earth .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
