It's rare to find a meteorite so massive, even in Antarctica.
The team, which was led by Vinciane Debaille, a planetary scientist at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, was the first to explore new potential meteor sites that had been mapped using satellite imagery.
The team planned their excursion for Antarctica's summer, in late December, but temperatures in the region still hovered at around 14 degrees Fahrenheit . Valdes said that at some points during the mission, Antarctica was actually warmer than Chicago, but the weather felt more extreme to the team because of days spent riding snowmobiles and trekking through ice fields and nights spent sleeping in tents.
The snowy landscape of Antarctica where five meteorites, including a rare 17-pound monster, were recovered. Conditions in Antarctica are even favorable for the discovery of meteorites that may have sunk beneath the snow and ice. This is because the churning motion of glaciers moving against rock can re-expose meteorites near the surface.
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