[MUSIC] In this video, I'll give you

an introduction to meteorites. What are they, where do they come from, and what
can they tell us about
the origin of our solar system? I'll give you a brief tour of
the meteorite gallery here at the Natural History Museum of Denmark to show
you some examples of important meteorites. Let me start out by telling you how
the meteorites arrived here on Earth. I hope that you have already
seen many shooting stars. Otherwise, do take some time to
look at the sky next time you're in a dark place with a good
view to the clear sky. Shooting stars are small pieces of solids
that enter the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds. In the vast majority of occasi
ons,
everything burns up in the atmosphere, but in rare cases,
a small fraction may survive and fall in the form of a meteorite. A famous and v
ery important example
from Denmark is the fall of the tiny Maribo meteorite in 2009. Here's a three-gr
am piece of
the little walnut-sized meteorite. The fireball that resulted in
the meteorite was caught on a Swedish surveillance camera. This and some other d
ata allowed us
not only to find the meteorite, but also determine its orbit around
the Sun before it hit the Earth. Finding the meteorite was not easy though. The
size of the fall area was
100 square kilometers and the meteorite was only walnut-sized. Thanks to a very
skilled
German meteorite hunter, the search was successful, making Maribo
the fifth known meteorite from Denmark. The meteorite arrived in the atmosphere
at
a record high 29 kilometers per second. As it penetrated the atmosphere, its
kinetic energy was transformed into heat, thus providing plenty of energy for
the powerful fireball. Here's a picture of a two-gram
fragment of the meteorite. The surface is coated with
a very thin fusion crust from the passage through the atmosphere. Since heating
only lasted a few seconds,
the material inside the meteorite remained cold and pristine, unchanged for
four and a half billion years. The particles that you can see here formed
during the birth of our solar system, millions of years before the Earth formed.
Also, although Maribo was
the smallest Danish meteorite, it is nevertheless by far
the most interesting. It contains material that
we have never seen before. A much bigger fall happened near
Chelyabinsk in Siberia on February 15, 2013 at 9:20 in the morning. A piece of r
ock with a mass of about
12,000 ton entered the atmosphere at 18 kilometers per second. The kinetic energ
y of the object was
equivalent to the explosive power of 500,000 tons of dynamite, or
more than 30 times the Hiroshima bomb. It destroyed almost every single window
in Chelyabinsk and many people were hurt. Fortunately, no one died. I have a sma
ll piece
of the meteorite here. The biggest piece was found at the bottom
of a lake below this large hole in the ice. Events like Chelyabinsk are quite ra
re. Statistically, we estimate that
they occur about once per century. Incidentally, there was
a somewhat similar event, also in Siberia,
almost exactly 100 years earlier. With an explosive power five to
ten times higher than Chelyabinsk, the Tunguska event flattened more than
2,000 square kilometers of forest. As far as we know, no one was
killed in this incident either. If you want to go hunting for
meteorite where should you search? Meteorites fall almost evenly
all over our planet, but some places are easier to search for

meteorites than others. Meteorites also survive

longer on the ground in a dry area than in a wet climate. Therefore, hot and
dry deserts are the best areas to search. This black rock in
the picture is a meteorite. It's easy to spot, certainly a lot easier than findi
ng
meteorites in a cornfield like this. Cold deserts like Antarctica are actually
even better, because the flowing ice under certain conditions cause the meteorit
es
to accumulate in certain areas and because meteorites are easy to
spot on the surface of the ice. In this picture,
each flag marks a meteorite. We found 85 different meteorites within
an area about 100 square meters. In total, we found 942 meteorites
during a six-week season in Antarctica. The fall rate of meteorites is about one
per 15,000 square kilometers per year, which makes about four per
hour on the Earth as a whole. This may sound like a nice steady
supply of these rare rocks, but unfortunately, only very few
of these will ever be found. In Denmark,
the fall rate is three per year, but we have only found three during
the last three centuries. The remaining 299 from the last
century are still out there, so please keep your eyes open for
meteorites at all times. So where do the meteorites come from? First and foremos
t, all meteorites found
so far are from our own solar system. In fact, we're quite confident
that if we were ever to come across a meteorite from
a different solar system, we would be able to recognize its origin
from outside the solar system immediately. So where in the solar
system do they come from? Well, let's go back to the picture we
looked at in the previous lecture. Primitive meteorites
are samples of the dust and particles orbiting the Sun when it formed. Most of t
his material was
used to form planets, but a small fraction ended up in minor bodies,
the so-called asteroids. Some of these asteroids never experienced
any significant geological evolution. Therefore, the original particles and the
dust never melted, and
have thus been preserved in these primitive bodies documenting
the earliest phases of our solar system. If you look at the surface
of this asteroid, you can see a lot of
craters on its surface. Each time such a crater forms,
pieces are knocked off the surface of the asteroid and
sent into free orbit around the Sun. After a few to several million years,
such a fragment may fall on Earth in the form of a meteorite,
such as the one I'm holding here. If we cut a slice through this meteorite,
we can see and study the original particles that formed
in the disk around the young Sun. We'll get back to these particles shortly,
but let me first show you some of the other very different
types of meteorites that we find. I just told you that many of these
asteroids never experienced any significant geological evolution. They just rema
ined primitive dust balls, sampling the earliest
materials in the solar system. But some of these bodies actually did melt,
first and foremost because of a radioactive
isotope known as aluminum-26. Decay of this isotope caused
these asteroids to melt. The metal they contained drained
down to form a central core. Some of the silicates or
stony materials also melted and was squeezed up on the surface where
they created volcanic activity. So therefore,
these asteroids have a cross section that really resembles something
very familiar, our own Earth. In the center of the Earth we have a metal core. O
utside that, a mantle and a crust,
which is the one we're standing on here. These asteroids subsequently cooled and
crystallized, and

collided with other asteroids. And fragments of such a broken destroyed

asteroid provide us with iron meteorites from the central metallic core, stony
irons from the interface between metal and silicate, such as this one,
and stony meteorites or achondrites from the surface
of the asteroid. I've summarized the evolution
of asteroids in this figure. Some asteroids remain
primitive dust balls. Those are the sources of
primitive chondrites. Other asteroids melted, differentiated
into core, mantle and crust. And fragments from differentiated
asteroids have provided us with iron meteorite, stony irons, and
the so-called achondrites from the crust. In total, we estimate that we
have meteorites from at least 100 different asteroids. Most of the asteroids we
have sampled
came from differentiated asteroids. But interestingly enough,
most of the meteorites that fall on Earth seem to come from relatively
few primitive un-melted asteroids. Statistically, 95% of
the meteorites falling on Earth are from the 15 known chondrite parent
bodies, whereas the last 5% come from approximately 100 different
differentiated asteroids. Let me get back to
the primitive meteorite and show you what they look like and
what they can tell us. If we look at the hand sample, we can see that about 50%
of the surface of
this chondrite is covered by fusion crust. Under the fusion crust, we can see th
e
most interesting part of the meteorite, well-preserved samples of the material
that formed during the birth of the solar system. If we look at a slice cut thro
ugh
a similar meteorite, like this one, we can see that it's
composed of different types of particles embedded in
a fine-grained matrix. These small round objects
that you see here are the chondrules that I introduced
to you in the previous video. Note that you do not have to
look hard to spot chondrules. They are everywhere. It's a main component in this
meteorite. By preparing thin sections
of the meteorites, we can study the chondrules
in great detail. Here's a picture of a one
millimeter chondrule. What we have learned is that
these round objects formed from flash heating of
a pre-existing dust precursor. We find them in a
wide range of sizes, diameters from 0.01 millimeter to
one centimeter are not uncommon. The most common minerals are olivine and pyroxe
ne, two types of minerals that
are also very common here on Earth. We also find iron nickel metal, and
often, we can see that the melt did not have time to form crystals when
the chondrules cooled in space. The space between these crystals
are therefore filled with glass. No matter which property we measure, the chondr
ules turn out to be highly
diverse and the texture is no exception. Here is a selection of chondrule
textures that we have observed. These textures can be reproduced in
the lab when we do the experiments under conditions similar to those that the re
al
chondrules experienced during the birth of our solar system. Chondrules are ther
efore probes of
the conditions that existed during the first phases of the solar system. Chondru
les also contain radioactive
isotopes that allow us to date them using a machine in
the basement of this building. And what we find is that the most
chondrules formed during the first few million years after the birth
of the solar system. If we look at the slice again, we can see that there are al
so some

irregular particles like this one. This is an example of a CAI,

a calcium aluminum-rich inclusion. Unlike the chondrule,
which formed as melt droplets, this irregular inclusion,
it condensed out of a very hot gas. This is an example of such
a fine-grained irregular CAI. Some of the CAIs were remelted and thus ended up l
ooking a bit
like the chondrules, round and more coarse-grained than
the original condensate. Some calcium and
aluminum are the main elements in CAIs. They are composed of minerals that
are rich in these two elements. As I have shown you, we can learn a lot
about the birth of our solar system by studying the details of
the primitive meteorites. But there's much more to be learned. Far from all the
clues can
be seen with the naked eye. Here at the Center for Star and
Planet Formation, we also study isotopic compositions of the elements in
the various components of the meteorites. Many of the isotopes are radioactive a
nd
we divide them into two groups. The longlived, that decay so slowly that they ar
e still
present today in the meteorites. In contrast,
the shortlived are now extinct, but have left traces in the form of
the elements they decayed to. So here's a list of the shortlived
isotopes that we study. But why is it of interest if
these isotopes are no longer present? In fact, there are several reasons to
have a detailed look at these isotopes. The fact that they were present in
the early solar system already provide important clues. Since they are shortlive
d, they must have formed shortly
before the solar system formed. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there. Some of the s
hortlived isotopes are only
formed in supernova explosions. Other isotopes form in other types
of stars, and some could have formed within the solar system by
particle irradiation from the young Sun. In other words, their presence tell us
something about the surroundings in which the solar system formed. Studying the
abundance of shortlived
isotopes in the meteorites provide information of the stars that
contributed matter to the solar system. By comparing areas in our galaxy with
active star formation, we may be able to find young solar systems formed under
conditions similar to our own. Another interesting aspect of
shortlived isotopes is that they may under certain condition be used
as chronometers that provide us with high resolution chronological information
about the early solar system. And finally, the rapid decay of shortlived
isotopes also provided the early formed asteroids with a powerful heat source. D
ecay of aluminum-26 resulted in the
melting of some asteroids and as a result, provided us with the differentiated
meteorites such as the iron meteorites. By far,
most meteorites come from asteroids, but there are two important exceptions,
meteorites from the Moon and Mars. In the next video,
I will talk more about Mars and why we think that we have meteorites
from our neighboring planet. But let me just give you
an introduction to whet your appetite. All Martian meteorite are volcanic rocks.
They are four different types
of Martian meteorites and one of the Martian meteorites is unique. It's named Al
lan Hills 84001 because
it was found in Allan Hills, Antarctica in 1984. It's the oldest known rock from
Mars. It's porous and Martian ground
water has circulated through it. Since we know that bacteria thrive under
similar conditions in volcanic rocks on the Earth, a search for evidence of
life was conducted in this meteorite. A famous paper from 1996
reported possible evidence, including these worm-like structures
that resemble fossil bacteria. The meteorite has been studied by a large

number of research groups since then and the consensus is that the structure is
formed by abiotic processes. That obviously does not
rule out life on Mars. The search for life on Mars is still ongoing, but so
far, we have not found the smoking gun. In the next video, we will look deeper
into the potential for life on Mars and its possible implications for
life on our own planet. There's one more body in the solar system
where we have meteorites from, the Moon. You can see some of the meteorites here
. Given the proximity of the Moon,
it would seem logic if the majority of meteorites came from our Moon, but
that is far from being the case. Lunar meteorites are surprisingly rare. It seem
s that large impacts on
the Moon result in intense, but brief, showers of Lunar
meteorites on the Earth. The observation that Lunar falls are rare
at the moment thus suggests that it has been a while since the last
big impact on the Moon. The Moon is the only object in the solar
system from which we have meteorites and samples returned through missions. The
Russian and U.S. missions sampled seven different
locations on the near side of the Moon. The Lunar meteorites, on the other hand,
probably sampled the far and near side quite evenly. The combined evidence from
all
these samples have allowed us to piece together how our Moon formed. As it turne
d out,
it has a very unusual and somewhat dramatic story that I'll
get back to in the next video. So let me finish off by reminding
you what I just told you. Meteorites are rocks from our own solar
system that have landed on the Earth. Most meteorites come from
a diverse group of asteroids. The most primitive asteroids have seen
virtually no geological activity since they formed four and
a half billion years ago. At the other extreme, we've sampled
asteroids that melted completely shortly after the solar system formed. Studies
of meteorites have
helped us reconstruct when and how the solar system formed, and it has allowed u
s to learn something about
the surroundings in which it formed. We also have meteorites from the Moon and
Mars. And since the Origins course focuses on
the evolution of life on our own planet, the possibility that it also formed and
possibly still exists on Mars is
obviously of great significance. We have learned that pieces of
Mars fall on the Earth and that there could be
primitive life on Mars. So before you listen to the next video,
take a moment to think about the possibility that life could spread
from one planet to another within our and other solar systems. Do you think that
could be possible? [MUSIC]