Discovering a meteorite existed before the Sun was formed?

According to a new study published in Science, a meteorite falling in Canada may contain components formed in a cold cloud before the solar system was born.

(Photo: HTV) On January 18, 2000, a fireball passed through the Canadian sky and the remains of the meteorite fell on British Columbia, on Tagish Lake. Samples were quickly recovered on tape, giving scientists the opportunity to study a ' fresh ' material.

The first isotopic analysis showed that Tagish lake meteorites made of carbone chondrite contained a very primitive material.

In 2002, researchers discovered the presence of tiny carbon droplets in this meteorite. So far, researcher Keiko Nakamura-Messenger and colleagues from Johnson Space Center (USA) have confirmed that these carbon nanospheres do not exist on Earth.

The researchers explained that these nanospheres contain deuterium and nitrogen forms that do not form on Earth, but in a very cold environment at 10 degrees or 20 degrees Kelvin. They may have formed in cold molecular clouds like clouds that existed before the Sun shone.

The Tagish meteorite offers a rare opportunity for scientists to study the solar system's original materials without launching probes to retrieve them.

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