(ORDO NEWS) — A meteorite flying over Canada could change scientists’ ideas about the formation of the solar system.
The meteorite was small and completely collapsed in the atmosphere.
But scientists were able to determine its trajectory, as its flight was captured by multiple cameras, including the Global Fireball Observatory network.
Research also showed that the meteorite weighed just over two kilograms and was composed of rocky rock. Such objects usually come to Earth from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
But the Canadian meteorite has come a much longer way. Modeling showed that it came from the Oort Cloud, a vast belt of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system.
The generally accepted theory is that the cloud began to form much closer to the Sun.
But over time, the gravitational influence of Jupiter and other giant planets pushed him to a distance of 2,000-200,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
According to the same theory, the objects of the Oort cloud are made of ice. But the Canadian meteorite that arrived from there consisted of a stone.
“This discovery points to a completely different model for the formation of the solar system,” the scientists noted.
The new data showed that icy objects in the Oort cloud coexist with a significant amount of rocky material. But it is still unknown how he got there.
Astronomers have speculated that the rocky bodies have been captured by the gravity of the sun and its long-vanished stellar twin.
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