from Hacker News

4.6B-year-old meteorite found

by lambersley on 7/22/21, 5:52 PM with 39 comments

• by yongjik on 7/22/21, 7:24 PM

  Not 100% sure but it seems clickbait - the title sounds like the meteorite was sitting on Earth for 4.6B years, but after reading the article, it sounds like the rock was 4.6B years old - it likely fell to the Earth much more recently.

  In that case, it's not exactly remarkable - I think pretty much all the asteroids in the Solar System are 4.6B years old, because that's when they were all created.

• by verytrivial on 7/22/21, 7:12 PM

  Off-central-topic, but regarding where this was found, if you find yourself discussing this offline, "Loughborough" is pronounced "LUFF-burro" or "LUFF-burrah".

  Ref. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYNzqgU7na4 for entertaining additions.

• by yesenadam on 7/22/21, 11:44 PM

  I just watched Werner Herzog's latest documentary (with vulcanologist Clive Oppenheimer) Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds[0] (2020) about asteroids, meteorites, comets etc and their impact on the Earth and human cultures past, present and possible future. Most of it consist of interviews with experts in the subject from around the world, showing them at work, e.g. with the Hawaiians that look out for asteroids on a collision path with Earth, and found ʻOumuamua. They go to the site of the Yucatan meteorite that killed the dinosaurs, go hunting meteorites in Antarctica etc. Maybe the most amazing bit was a sequence of photographs of micro-meteorites found in Norway. I thought it was great, highly recommended!

  New to Herzog? Most of the user reviews on IMDb are complaining it's not the usual impersonal science program they'd evidently expected, so please don't make that mistake. There are a few segments about meteorites in myths/religions. Herzog's documentaries all kind of feel like anthropology, no matter the topic. He's fascinated in people, and celebrates us in all our weirdness. e.g. His 2016 documentary about the internet, Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World[1], was one of the best things on the subject I'd seen.

  [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9203832

  [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5275828

• by mint2 on 7/22/21, 7:25 PM

  I really wanted to know how they managed to find it, but aside from some offhand comments they didn’t go there.

  Found in imprint of a horseshoe? What? Tracking it before it landed?

  Like in desert areas people will metal detect for meteors, but how did they find this one.

• by MeteorMarc on 7/22/21, 8:31 PM

  This link describes the find of the meteorite. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/march/uk-fireball-m...

• by saltedonion on 7/22/21, 7:19 PM

  Do we really expect these rocks to not undergo any sort of chemical reaction once they land on earth?

• by pkdpic_y9k on 7/22/21, 9:38 PM

  So do amino acids self-replicate on their own in some way independent of DNA / protective membranes etc? A little beyond my 8th-grade understanding of science but trying to get there...

• by markus_zhang on 7/22/21, 9:52 PM

  Was watching X-Files and wondering if Mulder ia going to Scotland yard to meet his girl friend!

• by dheera on 7/22/21, 7:24 PM

  What exactly does 4.6B-year-old mean?

  Landed on the Earth 4.6B years ago? That doesn't sound right, the Earth isn't that old.

  Flew off its former body 4.6B years ago? How do we measure that?

  Created 4.6B years ago? How does one define created, considering everything was ultimately created during the big bang?

• by Yajirobe on 7/22/21, 7:19 PM

  How was it dated?

• by j_walter on 7/22/21, 8:09 PM

  God put it there...