METEORITE THAT FELL TO EARTH IN 2018 HAD 2,600 ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

A 12-million-year-old meteorite that fell to Earth in January 2018 is covered in more than 2,600 organic compounds, according to new research. Meteorites such as this one likely acted as messengers early in Earth's history, delivering the building blocks of life, the researchers said, Ashley Strickland reported for CNN.

A fireball meteor was seen streaking across the sky over the Midwest and Ontario on the evening of January 16, 2018. Weather data helped scientists quickly track where the pieces of the meteor fell to Earth so they could collect them before the samples from space were contaminated too much by Earth. The study was published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

"Weather radar is meant to detect hail and rain," said lead study author Philipp Heck, curator at the Field Museum in Chicago and associate professor at the University of Chicago, in a statement. "These pieces of meteorite fell into that size range, and so weather radar helped show the position and velocity of the meteorite. That meant that we were able to find it very quickly."

Scientists believe the Hamburg meteorite was ejected from its parent asteroid about 12 million years ago, traveling through space until it landed on Earth. An analysis of the meteorite revealed that the rock had been exposed to cosmic rays while zipping through space for 12 million years. The meteorite came from an asteroid that formed 4.5 billion years ago, only about 20 million years after the formation of our solar system, Heck said. The 2,600 different organic compounds that cover the Hamburg meteorite were formed in its parent asteroid. It's what is known as an H4 chondrite, a type of meteorite that isn't known to be rich in organics.