[Rockhounds] Two minerals never before been seen on Earth found inside 17-ton meteorite

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered
inside a massive meteorite in Somalia. They could hold important clues to
how asteroids form.

The two brand new minerals were found inside a single 2.5 ounce (70 gram)
slice taken from the 16.5 ton (15 metric tons) El Ali meteorite, which
crashed to *Earth* <https://www.livescience.com/earth.html> in 2020.
Scientists named the minerals elaliite after the *meteor*
<https://www.livescience.com/difference-between-asteroids-comets-and-meteors.html>
and
elkinstantonite after *Lindy Elkins-Tanton*
<https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/lindy-elkins-tanton/>(opens
in new tab), the managing director of the Arizona State University
Interplanetary Initiative and principal investigator of NASA's upcoming
Psyche mission, which will send a probe to investigate the mineral-rich
Psyche *asteroid* <https://www.livescience.com/asteroids> for evidence of
how our *solar system* <https://www.livescience.com/our-solar-system.html>'s
planets formed.

"Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological
conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found
before," *Chris Herd* <https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/herd>(opens
in new tab), a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences at the University of Alberta, said in a *statement*
<https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2022/11/new-minerals-discovered-in-massive-meteorite-may-reveal-clues-to-asteroid-formation.html>(opens
in new tab). "That's what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite
you have two officially described minerals that are new to science."

https://www.livescience.com/two-new-minerals-found-inside-meteorite