image: Limestone containing an 8 cm fossilized meteorite that fell on the seafloor 470 million years ago, and a fossil octopus shell. view more
Credit: Image credit: Birger Schmitz.
Researchers recovered around 10,000 extraterrestrial chrome-spinel grains from 8,484 kg of sedimentary rock representing 15 time-windows to establish a paleoflux record of meteorites falling to Earth over the past 500 million years; in contrast with the theory that meteorite delivery to Earth is primarily driven by a cascading process following large asteroid breakup events, the results suggest that meteorite delivery has been largely stable over the past 500 million years, with the bulk of meteorites coming from a restricted and unidentified region in the asteroid belt.
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Article #2020-20977: "Asteroid break-ups and meteorite delivery to Earth the past 500 million years," by Fredrik Terfelt and Birger Schmitz
MEDIA CONTACT: Birger Schmitz, Lund University, SWEDEN; tel: +46-768560140; email: <birger.schmitz@nuclear.lu.se>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences