A Belgian-Dutch team of scientists has created the first-ever “treasure map” that shows where in Antarctica meteorites are likely to be found. Meteorites are chunks of stone-like material that can be found on the surface of the Earth after falling from space.
Unlike the earth’s rocks, meteorites have been spared from our planet’s weathering and volcanism and are therefore regarded as invaluable archives of the earliest stages of our solar system. Whereas rocks fail to tell us anything about the first half-a-billion years of our planet’s 4.55-billion-years existence, most meteorites from the asteroid belt allow us to stretch back to 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of recorded meteorites in Antarctica come from the asteroid belt, with about 1% hailing from the Moon and Mars.
