Water on meteorite! Scientists make landmark discovery on rock that crashed in London

In a first, scientists have found traces of water on a meteorite that crashed onto  Earth last year. meteorite was recovered from Gloucestershire in London's Winchcombe and is being considered key to answering origin of water on Earth. According to Ashley King, a researcher in planetary materials group at Natural History Museum, 12% of meteorite is composed of water, although molecules are locked up in minerals. 

meteorite, according to multiple reports, blazed through sky in late February last year and scientists were able to gar between 300 to 500 grams of rock. Since it was found just 12 hours after crash, meteorite was protected from being contaminated by Earthly elements, making it easier for experts to examine as it came. 

Composition of water on meteorite similar to Earth’s oceans

“ composition of that water is very, very similar to composition of water in Earth's oceans”, King told British Science Festival while explaining nature of meteorite, as per Daily Mail’s report. “It's a really good piece of evidence that asteroids and bodies like Winchcombe me a very important contribution to Earth's oceans”. 

He furr said that experts always try to match composition of water meteorites with composition of water on Earth and stated that non-contamination of rock has proved to be a great help in its study. According to King, carbonaceous asteroids were most probable source of water on Earth. 

“ composition of water in Winchcombe is a much better match, so that would imply that asteroids – carbonaceous asteroids – were probably main source of water to inner solar system, to Earth," he said, as per Daily Mail.

Notably, re are over 65,000 space rocks discovered on Earth so far, however, just a little over 50 have been found to be carbonaceous, one that contains building blocks of life including amino acids.

It is believed that meteorite, which formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, visited our planet from a location beyond Jupiter and its journey took about three lakh years.