Unique mineral found inside a meteorite that landed in Australia had NEVER been seen in nature

A unique mineral that had never before been seen in nature had been discovered inside a metallic meteorite found in southern Australia in 1951.

The iron and carbon-rich mineral is also formed during the smelting process which makes steel from iron — but to be recognised officially, minerals must form naturally.

Researchers from California have named the newly-confirmed mineral ‘edscottite’, after the pioneering cosmochemist Edward Scott.

It is thought that the meteorite originally came from a planet that was blasted apart, likely in a collision with another cosmic body.

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A unique mineral that had never before been seen in nature had been discovered inside a metallic meteorite, pictured, found in southern Australia in 1951

The fist-sized metallic meteorite was named after Wedderburn in Victoria, Australia, where it was discovered 4.5 kilometres north-east of the town in 1951.

Only around a third of the once 7.5 ounce (210-gram) space rock remains intact within the collections of the Museums Victoria — the rest have been sliced up for analysis.

Previous studies had revealed the meteorite contained traces of iron and gold, alongside such rarer minerals as kamacite, schreibersite, taenite, and troilite.

Studying a slice of the meteorite, mineralogist Chi Ma of the California Institute of Technology and geochemist Alan Rubin of the University of California, Los Angeles found tiny slivers of an iron carbide mineral never before seen in nature.

‘The new mineral is named in honour of Edward (Ed) R. D. Scott, pioneering cosmochemist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, for his seminal contributions to research on meteorites,’ the researchers wrote in their paper.

Viewed through a scanning electron microscope, edscottite appears as tiny white crystals, existing in thin slivers between the surrounding material.

This crystal shape is unusual compared to the other two carbon-rich minerals —  cohenite and haxonite — that are found in iron-based meteorites. 

This, the researchers believe, is the consequence of the edscottite having formed very quickly after the original matter became supersaturated in carbon.

‘This meteorite had an abundance of carbon in it,’ senior curator of geosciences at Museums Victoria Stuart Mills told The Age.

‘As it slowly cooled down, the iron and carbon came together and formed this mineral,’ he added.

The iron and carbon-rich mineral, edscottite, is also formed during the smelting process which makes steel from iron — but to be recognised officially, minerals must form naturally

Viewed through a scanning electron microscope, edscottite appears as tiny white crystals, existing in thin slivers between the surrounding material

Planetary scientist Geoffrey Bonning of the Australian National University in Canberra, who was not involved in the present study, told the Age that he believes the Wedderburn meteorite was once part of an ancient planet

Artificial edscottite has been known for many decades, as the mineral is produced during the iron smelting process that eventually creates steel.

However, a mineral has to be found naturally before it can be official recognised as such by the International Mineralogical Association.

‘We have discovered 500,000 to 600,000 minerals in the lab, but fewer than 6000 that nature’s done itself,’ Dr Mills told The Age.

Previous studies had revealed the meteorite contained traces of iron and gold, alongside such rarer minerals as kamacite, schreibersite, taenite, and troilite 

Studying a slice of the meteorite, mineralogist Chi Ma of the California Institute of Technology and geochemist Alan Rubin of the University of California, Los Angeles found tiny slivers of an iron carbide mineral never before seen in nature

Planetary scientist Geoffrey Bonning of the Australian National University in Canberra, who was not involved in the present study, told the Age that he believes the Wedderburn meteorite was once part of an ancient planet.

This body, he suggests, ‘got blasted apart’ — likely in some kind of collision with another planet, moon or asteroid. 

The full findings of the study were published in the journal American Mineralogist. 

The fist-sized metallic meteorite was named after Wedderburn in Victoria, Australia, where it was discovered 4.5 kilometres north-east of the town in 1951