Thursday, December 7, 2006

More information about Tagish meteorite

More information about Tagish meteorite

Emma Bullock, a postgraduate student in the department, is working on the composition of the meteorite for her thesis.

"It's unlike any other meteorite we've ever seen so it possibly belongs in a group all of its own," she says.

"There are [compounds containing the element sulphur] in this meteorite that aren't found on Earth and there are also some very unusual shapes of sulphide.

"It's got some other very interesting features," she adds. "It's been altered by water but not really by heat so that's affected some of the minerals."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2144150.stm<

additional information says more specifically that
(from Kathleen McBride)
The exterior of 05112 is yellow brown with fractures; 05124 has patches of purplish black fusion crust. The interiors are brown and black with light colored inclusions.

The Thin Section (,2) Description: Tim McCoy and Emma Bullock
The sections consist of a few small chondrules (up to 0.5 mm), mineral grains and CAIs set in a black matrix; rare metal and sulfide grains are present.
Olivine compositions are Fa1-20. The matrix consists pre-dominantly of an Fe-rich serpentine.

Thee research says instead of the sample being unknown the meteorites are type: CM2
chondrites

http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/amn/amnsep06/petdesmil05112.cfm