A dark reddish-brown stone, picked up from the Sahara desert in Morocco a few years ago, appears to be an Earth rock that was flung into space where it stayed for thousands of years before returning home – surprisingly intact.
If scientists are right about this, the rock will officially be named the first meteorite to boomerang from Earth.
The discovery team’s work was presented last week at an international geochemistry conference and has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“I think there is no doubt that this is a meteorite,” said Frank Brenker, a geologist at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, who was not involved with the new study. “It is just a matter of debate if it is really from Earth.”
Early diagnostic tests show the unusual stone features the same chemical composition as volcanic rocks on Earth. Interestingly, however, a few of its elements seem to have been altered into lighter forms of themselves. These lighter versions are known to occur only upon interacting with energetic cosmic rays in space, which provided one of two key pieces of evidence declaring the rock’s trip beyond Earth, geologists say.
The measured concentrations of these lighter elements, called isotopes, “are too high to be explained by processes taking place on Earth,” said Jérôme Gattacceca, a geophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research who is leading the investigation of the unusual meteorite, which was officially named Northwest Africa 13188 (NWA 13188).
Gattacceca and his colleagues strongly suspect the rock was first hurled into space after an asteroid pummeled into Earth roughly 10,000 years ago. The only other natural event capable of catapulting rocks to high altitudes is a volcanic eruption, but geologists say that possibility is highly unlikely to explain the latest findings. Rocks blasting from even the record-breaking Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano last year peaked at 36 miles (58 kilometers) — well before the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, a threshold the meteorite seems to have flown far beyond.
Once hurled into space past Earth’s protective blanket, NWA 13188 would’ve been susceptible to galactic cosmic rays, made of high energy particles that arise from distant exploding stars and penetrate our solar system at light-like speeds. Such abundant beams are known to bombard meteorites and leave behind distinct, detectable isotopic imprints like beryllium-3, helium-10 and neon-21. In NWA 13188, levels of these elements are higher than those found in any rock on Earth, but lower than in other meteorites. This shows the intriguing rock might’ve spent some 2,000 to a few tens of thousands of years in orbit around Earth before re-entering its atmosphere, scientists say.
The second crucial clue divulging the rock’s trip to space is its glossy coat of melted surface called a fusion crust, which forms when space rocks race through Earth’s atmosphere during their journey to the ground.
The 1.4-pound NWA 13188 was purchased in 2018 at one of Europe’s largest annual mineral and gem shows in Sainte Marie aux Mines, France, by Albert Jambon, a retired French professor from the Sorbonne University of Paris. He said he stays in touch with meteorite hunters and dealers and has bought nearly 300 meteorites for his university in the past two decades.
“I purchased this one just because it was odd,” said Jambon. “Nobody knows what this stone is really worth.”
The Moroccan dealer who sold the meteorite to Jambon very likely bought it from nomadic Bedouin tribes collecting peculiar stones in the Sahara, so it remains a mystery exactly where NWA 13188 landed after it re-entered Earth. Two years ago, Jambon teamed up with Gattacceca, a long-time collaborator who classifies meteorites for private collectors.
The team’s preliminary analysis on the boomerang meteorite hasn’t yet convinced other geologists, because the conclusions drawn so far are not indisputable that the rock is, in fact, from Earth.
“It is an interesting rock that would deserve more investigations to be conducted before making extraordinary claims,” said Ludovic Ferrière, a curator of the rock collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna in Austria, who was not involved with the new study.
Gattacceca’s team also hasn’t yet determined the age of the meteorite, a necessary indicator of its origin. The rock was classified as an ungrouped achondrite, and meteorite members of this class are tagged at 4.5 billion years old — the same as the solar system. If NWA 13188 is an Earth rock, however, it must be a lot younger.
Another critical concern is the lack of a large impact crater on Earth young enough to fit the proposed timeline. Gattacceca and his colleagues estimate a crater about 12.4 miles (20 km) wide would have had to form if a 0.6-mile (1 km) wide asteroid crashed into Earth just 10,000 years ago. Among the 50 of the 200 known impact craters on Earth that are the required size, none of them are younger than millions of years.
The Sahara, where NWA 13188 was found, is home to 12 craters, only one of which is 11.1 miles (18 km) wide and at least 120 million years old, according to the Earth Impact Database, a repository of confirmed impact craters on Earth. Although there are dozens of possible impact craters in the African continent pending verification, critics say a 10,000-year-old crater is impossible to overlook.
“Such a very recent impact crater would definitely have been discovered,” said Ferrière, who has found and confirmed a few impact craters including one in Congo. Asteroids transfer their momentum to the ground where they strike, amplifying local pressures and temperatures to such extremes that Earth rocks melt, and those “within such a large recent crater would still be hot,” he said.
Other pending measurements include unambiguous data about how much shock from the original impact the stone absorbed. This unique signature can be detected in the permanently altered microstructures of the mineral crystals forming the rock. Estimating the meteorite’s shock levels is “something that can be checked or done in one hour or so max, using naked eyes,” Ferrière said, “thus, not costly and a very important observation in this case.”
If the discovery pans out, NWA 13188 will inaugurate a genre of boomerang meteorites, although there is no official name for such a classification at the moment. A few geologists are calling the group “terrestrial meteorites.”
The only confirmed member so far is a tiny chunk of Earth that was dug up on the moon by Apollo astronauts in 1971.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
