Meteorite

As leftovers from the formation of the solar system, meteorites can act as time capsules. Scientists at the EPFL have now examined a piece of an asteroid known as 2008 TC3 and found diamonds that could only have come from a large, long-lost planet that roamed our neighborhood billions of years ago.

To help hunt down elusive iron meteorites in Antarctica, the University of Manchester recently tested its new towable metal detectors as part of the first ever British-led meteorite hunting expedition in Antarctica that will be carried out in conjunction with BAS.

Two meteorites that fell in 1998 were found to contain traces of liquid water and organic compounds vital to life. Now, a comprehensive chemical analysis of them suggests their organic matter could come from an ancient ocean world, giving them the potential to kickstart life wherever they land.

In 1996, scientists discovered the strangest stone ever found. Nicknamed the Hypatia stone, it was later found to be extraterrestrial, but unlike any known kind of meteorite. A new study has deepened the mystery even further, finding that Hypatia could be interstellar or predate the Solar System.

A weapon as legendary as the dagger of King Tutankhamun needs an epic backstory, and last year X-ray analysis showed that the iron in the blade came from meteorites. Now a study has found that the artifact was far from alone as all iron tools dating back to the Bronze Age have otherworldly origins.

Mt Stromboli has been erupting almost continuously for more than 2,000 years, but that’s a sneeze compared to the ancient volcanic activity of Mars. According to new studies of Martian meteorites, at some point a volcano on the Red Planet may have erupted non-stop for more than 2 billion years.

​​A new study led by researchers from MIT may have identified the starting material from which the planet Mercury was created.

One of the asteroids from a massive collision 470 million years ago has been well known. But the other space rock involved in the crash has been a mystery until now, thanks to the discovery of a meteorite that's never been seen before on our planet.

The origin of iron in Tutankhamun's dagger has long been a point of debate. New evidence, obtained through the use of highly-accurate X-ray technology, should end the discussion, revealing that the metal in the dagger made its way to Earth as part of an ancient meteorite.

Nearly three billion years ago the surface of our planet contained less than 0.001 percent of today's oxygen. While this has been known for a while, we've never been quite sure what the Earth's upper atmosphere looked like at the time. Fossilized cosmic dust has helped scientist sort it all out.​

At CES in Las Vegas, the asteroid mining company Planetary Resource unveiled the first object 3D printed using extraterrestrial materials.

Geophysicists claim to have stumbled across the largest asteroid impact zone ever found on Earth. Covering a 400 km (249 mi) wide area in Central Australia, the two ancient craters are believed to be the result of a single meteorite that split in two moments before crashing into the Earth.