Report: Scientists Discovered New Minerals In A Unique Meteorite

The mineralogist Chi Ma and his team have identified three new materials in a tiny sample of the Khatyrka meteorite. They recovered the meteorite from the Koryak Mountains in eastern Russia in 1979 and 2011.

According to PHYS, the discovery made news in recent years for containing the first three natural quasicrystals ever found. Ma, the director of the Geological and Planetary science at Caltech has discovered 35 new minerals to date, including 32 in meteorite sample.

The new minerals stolperite, hollisterite and kryachkoite, the original samples have discovered by Stopper, Lincoln Hollister, and Valery Kryachko. They found the original samples of the Khatyrka meteorite in 1979, by contributing nascent field of technology.

Technology Networks has reported Nan mineralogy is a high- resolution analytical scanning electron microscopy, in which a beam of high-energy electrons is focused into a polished sample surface. This thing allowed scientists to observe the mineral down to a 1-nanometer resolution and to analyze its chemical composition at a sub-micrometer scale.

The newly dubbed stolperite has many fundamental contributions to petrology and meteorite research and support for natural quasicrystal research. The mineralogist Chi Ma said," stolperite is arranged in a cubic form, with each copper atom at the center of a cube at all eight corners.

However, the researcher has stated that the khatyrka meteorite is the only meteorite ever found that contains metallic aluminum. The meteorite fragment hosting the trio of new minerals is now in the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.

According to the scientists, the three new finding materials name has been confirmed by the Commission on New Minerals. The Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association are responsible for naming the new materials which were established in 1959.

Meanwhile, to name a new mineral, a researcher must demonstrate that its chemical composition and crystal structure that makes it unique. Scientists hope that the new discovery will open a new branch of science.