Researchers in Canada have discovered two new minerals in a meteorite that landed in Somalia.
About the minerals –
The 15-tonne El Ali meteorite was unearthed in Somalia in 2020.
It is the ninth largest celestial rock found on Earth at over 2 metres wide.
The meteorite came from an asteroid in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The 2-metre-wide meteorite has been well known to generations of people who live in the area, where it was named Nightfall.
The minerals have been named “elaliite,” after the town where the meteorite crashed, and “elkinstantonite,” after planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton.
Around 4,000 minerals are known to science, and they comprise all the rocks already on Earth.
Of those minerals, only about 300 were discovered in meteorites, alien rocks that crashed on Earth.
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