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Join on Telegram Rabat – Scientists have been left puzzled but also dazzled with a boomerang meteorite found in Morocco, which is believed to be the first of its kind worldwide.
Scientific magazines have described the rock to be taking different shades of colors like red and brown, which are concentrated in a dark stone.
The meteorite was discovered a few years ago in Morocco’s Sahara desert, precisely in 2018.
Space.com stressed that the “earth rock was flung into space where it stayed for thousands of years before returning home.”
Scientific magazine Live Science also reported on the discovery stressing that the space rock originated on earth before “being ejected into space and then later tumbling back to earth.’
Officially named NWA 13188, the stone weighs around 646 grams.
“Nobody saw the rock fall to Earth and its composition was discovered to be very similar to a specific type of volcanic rocks known to scientists, which has led to speculation about its origins,” Live Science said.
The rock was classified as an “ungrouped achondrite,” scientists said in a press conference on July 11.
“We consider NWA 13188 to be a meteorite, launched from the Earth and later re-accreted to its surface,” the experts said.
The scientists further suggested that the scenario matches the latest definitions of meteorites as material launched from a celestial body that achieves an independent orbit around the Sun or some other celestial body.
Material that is eventually re-accreted by its original body can be considered a meteorite, under these definitions.
Morocco has been home to many scientific findings throughout the past years, including other meteorites.
Earlier this year, researchers said that a martian meteorite that fell in the country in 2011 showed organic compounds.
“The Tissint meteorite is the most recent Martian meteorite observed in the fall (July 2011) near the city of Tissint in Morocco,” researchers announced in January.
A meteorite that was found in Morocco in 2007 was also auctioned recently for a price of $189,000.
Meteorite landings were also recorded in Morocco in 2019. Scientists named the two meteorites Wad Lahteyba and Al Farciya.
Both have landed in the province of Assa-Zag in the southern region of Guelmim-Oued Noun.
