Today, in the history of astronomy, a rare and ancient meteorite brings the treasure of scientific discoveries.
The pieces of Murchaison meteorite fell to Earth on September 28, 1969, with a series of loud booms, a strong odor and a puff of smoke. Credit: Basilicofresco, CC by-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On September 28, 1969, at 10:58 am, residents of Mirchisan, Victoria in Australia, heard a series of boom loudly. The noise was with a strong smell and a streak of smoke in the sky. A carbonaceous chondite meteorite, the merchanta meteorite broke as it entered the atmosphere, and thus did not leave any pit. Instead, it spreads parts in a 13.5-class-mile (35 square kilometers) farm. The next day, local farmer Arnold Brisbane brought samples of meteorite in his local newspaper, which contacted Melbourne University, allowing meteorite pieces to be fresh and without thinking. Thanks to that speed and incredible age of meteorite – 4.6 billion years old, and thus more older than Earth – samples have a treasure of discoveries for scientists. Among other findings, meteorite has shown the presence of carbon elsewhere in the universe, providing information about the formation of elements, and has proved that the creation blocks of life are abundant in the universe.
