Antarctica is an icy desert. There are large swathes of ice sheets in the southernmost continent and it is the site of the South Pole of the Earth. However, it is the best place to hunt for meteorites. Why? The reason is its climate. Antarctica's dry climate limits the weathering the space rocks experience. Also, the dark appearance of the meteorites makes it easier for explorers to spot them in the snowy fields. This happened with an international team of researchers that found five new meteorites, including one that weighs 16.7 pounds (7.6 kg).
Theme meteorites were found in Antarctica Blue Ice, an area with strong winds where the glaciers get ablated.
The mission was meant to explore new areas of meteorite accumulation around the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Station, and lasted from December 11, 2022 to January 11.
"Meteorites are rocks fallen from space as a shooting star. Previously, three successful Belgian-Japanese missions to the Nansen Blue Ice Field near the Belgian station in Antartica collected more than 600 meteorites. Using satellite images and GPS coordinates, the team set out to discover the potential of several areas of interest by searching them for meteorites," Professor Maria Schoenbaechler, from department of earth sciences at ETH-Zurich in Switzerland and part of the team that visited Antarctica, told news agency PTI.
The Blue Ice zone of Nils Larsen, about 60 km from the station, has been recognised as an accumulation zone worthy of revisiting, the researchers said in a statement.
"But above all, the team returns with a very nice surprise in its luggage: a 7.6 kg meteorite! Such big meteorites are very rare in Antarctica," said Professor Schoenbaechler.
"At the moment it looks like an ordinary chondrites. This type of meteorite comes from the asteroid belt and ended its travel in the Antarctic blue ice, waiting several tens of thousands of years in the ice before discovery. It belongs to the oldest material that can be found on Earth and is similar to the building block of the Earth," she further told the news agency.
The discovery is very important for the Earth science research as the researchers said will help "better understand our place in the universe".
"It belongs to the oldest material that can be found on Earth and is similar to the building block of the Earth," said Professor Schoenbaechler.
The five meteorites recovered by the team will now be analysed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences where scientists will study their chemical composition.
Along with Professor Schoenbaechler, the team included scientists from Field Museum of Natural History, University of Chicago in the US, and Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium, was led by Vinciane Debaille, ULB and guided in the field by Manu Poudelet, International Polar Guide Association.
