Researchers recently discovered in Morocco’s Sahara desert an unusual rock that could be the first ever known “boomerang meteorite” –a space rock that originated on our planet before being ejected into space and then later tumbling back to Earth–according to the “Live Science” website.
The meteorite, named NWA 13188 and weighing around 23 ounces (646 grams), was found to be very similar to a specific type of volcanic rock.
According to a group of scientists who have recently been studying the formation, it is now thought to be a terrestrial meteorite–signifying that it originated on Earth—which was launched into space millions of years ago and has only just returned to our planet.
Meteoriticist Jérôme Gattacceca at Aix-Marseille University in France said that if his teams’ findings are correct, NWA 13188 will be recognized as the first official terrestrial meteorite found on Earth.
According to the researchers, the meteorite is classified as such because it has a “well-developed fusion crust” on its surface. More specifically, it is encapsulated by a thin layer of heat-shocked rock, which is not a typical characteristic of volcanic rocks on Earth.
Additionally, the scientists discovered evidence of isotopes, such as beryllium-3, helium-10, and neon-21, which indicate that the rock may have been exposed to cosmic rays (high-energy particles which travel across space at almost the speed of light). The concentration of these isotopes indicates that the rock spent at least 10,000 years–or perhaps much longer–in space.
The meteorite was ejected into space either by an enormous volcanic eruption or courtesy of a gigantic asteroid collision which propelled it out of the atmosphere. The latter explanation–according to researchers–is the most plausible, since no known volcanic explosion has yet been strong enough to expel boulders into space.
In a 2019 study published in the journal, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, researchers identified an unusual lunar chunk of rock while on the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. It contained tiny fragments of quartz, feldspar, and zircon, which all likely originated on Earth. They presuppose that the specimen had been ejected from our planet when the moon was positioned much closer to our planet (billions of years ago) than it is today.