“Extinct” Meteorite Recovered From Swedish Limestone Quarry

The first of its own kind of "extinct" meteorite has been recovered from a Swedish limestone quarry that manufactures floor tiles. The meteorite is considered to be a remnant of a bigger object that must have been destroyed in the past and does not exist in the universe any more.

The meteorite, dubbed "Osterplana 65," is estimated to be at least 470 million years old. The ancient Swedish space rock was found amidst hundreds of other common types of meteorites called L type chondrites. A majority of these objects is believed to have formed when their "mother" object collided with an asteroid, forming several fragments.

While hundreds of L chondrites resulted from the mother object, the material of the asteroid that brought that fate to the huge meteorite was not known until now. Osterplana 65 is now considered to be one of the parts of the asteroid that sent hundreds of L chondrites raining down on Earth.

According to lead author Birger Schmitz of the Lund University, the meteorite was considered as a "mysterious" object for so many years because of the sheer inability of the researchers to figure out what it was exactly. He further said the object in question is something outside of this world.

Schmitz believes that there is still a lot left to learn about the meteorites that smashed the Earth during important moments in the evolutionary history of the planet. The researcher believes that a space rock collision might have helped alter the ecosystem of Earth, which in turn, led to the establishment and survival of new species.

The researcher further wrote in the study that the history of the solar system can be potentially reconstructed by looking at the sediments of the Earth, in addition to what can be observed in the skies.

The complete details of the discovery have been reported in the journal Nature Communications.