Water on meteorite! Scientists make landmark discovery on rock that crashed in London

In a first, scientists have found traces of water on a meteorite that crashed onto the Earth last year. The meteorite was recovered from Gloucestershire in London's Winchcombe and is being considered key to answering the origin of water on Earth. According to Ashley King, a researcher in the planetary materials group at the Natural History Museum, 12% of the meteorite is composed of water, although the molecules are locked up in minerals. 

The meteorite, according to multiple reports, blazed through the sky in late February last year and scientists were able to gather between 300 to 500 grams of the rock. Since it was found just 12 hours after the crash, the meteorite was protected from being contaminated by Earthly elements, making it easier for experts to examine as it came. 

Composition of water on meteorite similar to Earth’s oceans

“The composition of that water is very, very similar to the composition of water in the Earth's oceans”, King told the British Science Festival while explaining the nature of the meteorite, as per Daily Mail’s report. “It's a really good piece of evidence that asteroids and bodies like Winchcombe made a very important contribution to the Earth's oceans”. 

He further said that the experts always try to match the composition of water meteorites with the composition of water on Earth and stated that the non-contamination of the rock has proved to be a great help in its study. According to King, the carbonaceous asteroids were the most probable source of water on Earth. 

“The composition of the water in Winchcombe is a much better match, so that would imply that asteroids – carbonaceous asteroids – were probably the main source of water to the inner solar system, to the Earth," he said, as per Daily Mail.

Notably, there are over 65,000 space rocks discovered on Earth so far, however, just a little over 50 have been found to be carbonaceous, one that contains building blocks of life including amino acids.

It is believed that the meteorite, which formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago, visited our planet from a location beyond Jupiter and its journey took about three lakh years.