Earth's most abundant mineral lies deep in the planet's interior, sealed off from human eyes. Now, scientists for the first time have gotten a glimpse of the material in nature, enclosed inside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. The result: They have characterized and named the elusive mineral.
The new official name, bridgmanite, was approved for the mineral formerly known by its chemical components and crystal structure — silicate-perovskite. The magnesium-silicate mineral was named after Percy Bridgman, a 1946 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, according to the American Geophysical Union blog.
The elusive mineral bridgmanite is shown in a shock melt vein inside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite found in Queensland, Australia.
Image: Chi Ma via LiveScience Read more...
More about Earth, Us World, World, Meteorite, and Space Reported by Mashable 3 hours ago.
The new official name, bridgmanite, was approved for the mineral formerly known by its chemical components and crystal structure — silicate-perovskite. The magnesium-silicate mineral was named after Percy Bridgman, a 1946 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, according to the American Geophysical Union blog.
The elusive mineral bridgmanite is shown in a shock melt vein inside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite found in Queensland, Australia.
Image: Chi Ma via LiveScience Read more...
More about Earth, Us World, World, Meteorite, and Space Reported by Mashable 3 hours ago.