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(meteorobs) FW: Monahans Meteorite Provides Clues To Early Solar System Chemistry
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From: Ron Baalke[SMTP:BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasadot gov]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 4:42 PM
To: ASTRO-L@uwwvax.uwwdot edu
Subject: Monahans Meteorite Provides Clues To Early Solar System Chemistry
Water of the Stars
By Greg Clark
space.com Staff Writer
Aug 26 1999 13:12:39 ET
A pair of scorched rocks that fell from space onto a west Texas town last
year may have delivered a bonanza to planetary scientists that could turn
out to be the most significant discovery in years: purple extraterrestrial
salt and miniature bottles of primordial water.
A team of scientists led by Michael Zolensky, a mineralogist at NASA's
Johnson Space Center, thinks it has found several minute samples of water
sealed inside the salt crystals in the Monahans meteorite. The minute
droplets of salty brine, which would have traveled through the solar system
for millions of years as tiny ice crystals, could reveal the details of
early solar-system chemistry. They may also tell scientists how and where
water formed, whether it was in the early days of the solar system, or
farther away and back in time somewhere in interstellar space.
Full story here:
http://www.space.com/science/astronomy/meteorite_water.html
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