Potentially Hazardous Asteroid May Be the Source for Rare Meteorites With Black Streaks Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid May Be the Source for Rare Meteorites With Black Streaks Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere
SHARE

The Chelyabinsk meteor hitting Russia almost a decade ago didn’t come empty-handed. Rare meteorites featuring black streaks also entered our planet’s atmosphere at that time, and astronomers had trouble tracking down their origin. 

According to Space.com, scientists have now discovered a possible source for the unusual meteorites: a potentially hazardous asteroid that measures a mile and a half long. This space rock’s last close approach to Earth occurred in 2020, and the weird-looking meteorites might actually be chunks of matter detached from the asteroid.

Blame it on the 1998 OR2 asteroid

1998 OR2 is the designation of the potentially hazardous asteroid in question. Although it never approached our planet at a dangerous distance, the space rock still causes some level of concern due to the future changes that might exist in its orbit in the next centuries. It could, at least theoretically, make us consider moving to another planet someday.

But what’s with the black streaks? Check out what Adam Battle has to say, the lead author of the study and a graduate student in planetary science at the University of Arizona:

Shock darkening is an alteration process caused when something impacts a planetary body hard enough that the temperatures partially or fully melt those rocks and alter their appearance both to the human eye and in our data,

This process has been seen in meteorites many times but has only been seen on asteroids in one or two cases way out in the main asteroid belt, which is found between Mars and Jupiter.

Despite measuring only 19 meters in diameter, the Chelyabinsk meteor hit the surface back in 2013 with a force that was stronger than a nuclear explosion. The event triggered detections from monitoring stations that are placed as far away as Antarctica. Luckily, there is no data on anyone getting killed because of the asteroid’s impact.


SHARE

Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

Post Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.