A FIERY meteorite that plunged onto a frozen lake on 18 January may be the
most primitive chunk of the Solar System ever found.
The meteorite, which plummeted onto Tagish Lake in Canada, is rich in grains
of interstellar dust. It鈥檚 an almost pristine sample from the primeval cloud of
gas and dust from which the Solar System formed, says a team led by Peter Brown
of the University of Western Ontario (Science, vol 290, p 320).
Pinning down the composition of the cloud will be essential if we鈥檙e to
understand planet formation, Brown says. 鈥淪ay you want to study the
Earth鈥攈ow the different elements separated out to give an iron core, for
instance鈥攜ou really need to know what you started with.鈥�
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