Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.
"This discovery supports an entirely different model of the formation of the solar system, one which backs the idea that significant amounts of rocky material co-exist with icy objects within the Oort Cloud," Denis Vida, a meteor physis specialist at Western University in Canada, said in a
"This result is not explained by the currently favored solar system formation models. It's a complete game changer."Scientists have always believed that the Oort Cloud consists exclusively of icy objects. When passing stars displace these Oort Cloud objects, they head into the inner solar system as.
While astronomers haven't directly seen an object in the Oort Cloud, they have seen many cometary objects that started life in the region and they've all been made of ice. That's how scientists got the idea that the outer solar system is made of only icy bodies and nothing rocky — a premise they used to develop theories about the formation of our planetary system.
Rocky fireballs are fairly commonly observed, but all previous examples have originated from much closer toThe University of Alberta caught the grapefruit-size, 4.4-pound rocky meteoroid using Global Fireball Observatory cameras developed in Australia. Western researchers then calculated its orbit Global Meteor Network tools. This revealed the meteoroid was traveling on an orbit usually occupied only by icy, long-period comets from the Oort Cloud.
"In 70 years of regular fireball observations, this is one of the most peculiar ever recorded," Hadrien Devillepoix, a planetary astronomer at Curtin University in Australia and principal investigator of GFO, said in the statement.
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Ancient Mexico's solar calendar in the mountains identifiedRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter sciencef1rst.
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