Recently, a team of scientists announced the arrival of 115 meteorites in Brussels, where they are being thawed, preserved, and classified at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, according to RTBF. The meteorites were discovered during the Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition (BELARE) in Antarctica.
The international team was led by Belgian scientists from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Among the findings are stones, including carbonaceous chondrites and achondrites, which hold clues to Earth's history and the origins of the solar system.
"Every meteorite we find is a remnant from the early years of our solar system," said Professor Steven Goderis from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), according to VRT NWS. "Each new (micro)meteorite provides an essential piece of the puzzle we are trying to solve."
The research team ventured over 300 kilometers from the Princess Elisabeth Station to the Belgica Mountains, a mountain range that had been unexplored by Belgian scientists since the 1960s. The Belgica Mountains were discovered in the late 1950s during an expedition led by Belgian explorer Gaston de Gerlache and were named after the research ship Belgica, according to VRT NWS.
Facing strong winds and temperatures dropping to -31 degrees Celsius, the team spent three weeks in the mountains. "From 8 PM, the sun disappeared behind the mountains. The only thing you could do was crawl into your tent, in a sleeping bag, and with another sleeping bag over it. The hardest part is that you can never warm up," said Goderis, according to VRT NWS.
Despite the challenges, they collected 115 meteorites, thousands of micrometeorites, cosmic dust particles, and samples of ice and rock. According to RTBF, the meteorites weigh over two kilograms each. "We have found a number of rare specimens. A pallasite, for example. That is a type of meteorite that contains information about very large collisions that have occurred in the history of the solar system," said Goderis, according to VRT NWS.
"Depending on the type of meteorite, we can answer very specific questions about the formation of the planets around our sun," said Goderis, according to news.faharas.net. "Some fragments of meteorites will provide information about planetary differentiation and the collisions that occurred in the young solar system," added Professor Vinciane Debaille from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
At the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the meteorites are thawed in controlled conditions. "Because we don't want them to thaw on the way and, for example, oxidize," explained Goderis. After thawing, the meteorites are given a name and entered into an international database.
After classification, the meteorites will be made available to the concerned research teams and the international scientific community, allowing scientists from around the world to apply to study them. RTBF noted that some of the pieces will be exhibited to the public.
Meteorites are stones from space that have entered Earth's atmosphere and have not completely burned up; they are fragments of planets, asteroids, or comets that are billions of years old. Goderis noted the importance of Antarctica for such discoveries. "Sixty percent of the meteorites on Earth have been found in Antarctica. That is the result of the flow of the ice, which brings the meteorites together in certain places," he stated, according to VRT NWS.
"You can naturally see blackened stones more easily lying on the ice or in the snow. But the biggest advantage is that the meteorites in Antarctica end up in a large freezer, which preserves them much better than anywhere else," added Goderis.
"Every meteorite adds a new piece to the puzzle. And we hope to collide with even more surprises when our meteorites have been examined," stated Goderis.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq