It was named after the town where it was recovered. One of the rarest meteorites ever landed in England: how to see it.
It's a package delivered from space to Earth containing information dated 4.6 billion years ago. Pertaining to what? For scientists, the chemistry that existed at the time of the formation of our Solar System. It is, in fact, a meteorite that landed in England. It has been called the "Winchcombe meteorite," but the story of Winchcombe, a medieval town in Gloucestershire, England, is only part of the story of a very rare celestial object that broke into several pieces in the atmosphere before impacting the ground.
The meteorite has received its "certificate," the proof that the object is meteoric in nature. According to the Meteoritical Society, an international institution, the name of Winchcombe can be used to indicate the fragment, which is gray-black in color and appears, at first glance, very similar to a piece of coal.
What secret the meteorite landed in England hides
Nothing could be more wrong: despite its resemblance to a simple stone, the Winchcombe meteorite is the rarest and most valuable ever landed in Britain. Now researchers will try to decipher the secrets contained within this atypical time capsule, analyzing a composition that could be the key to decipher the rebus of the formation of our galaxy.
It was February 28 when Winchcombe came to visit our planet. Many saw the trail of fire it drew across the sky as it entered the atmosphere. Thanks to the accounts of eyewitnesses, scientists have traced the point of impact: that of the largest piece, it turned out to be the field of Mrs. Victoria Bond. Winchcombe was hidden among the sheep droppings, but was found anyway.
How to see the Winchcombe meteorite
When the scholars got their hands on the precious find, they discovered that, from the analysis, there would be 100 g left, enough to organize an exhibition concerning the recent but already very fascinating story of the Winchcombe meteorite landing. The doors of the exhibition are already open: from May 17 you can closely observe the piece of rock that encloses the mysteries of the cosmos at the Natural History Museum in London.
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