NASA just found rare, extraterrestrial meteorite fragments in the ocean

asteroid meteor armageddon shutterstock Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

A meteorite crashed near the American Pacific coast on March 7, 2018.
NASA is now analysing two fragments they found on the seabed to establish whether they came from the same meteorite.
The meteorite could contain extraterrestrial metal that scientists haven't come across before.
NASA hopes to use any findings to learn more about the behaviour of meteorites.

A meteorite that crashed near the American Pacific coast on March 7, 2018 has been causing quite a stir for the past few days.

NASA researcher Marc Fries is currently on a research expedition — he's looking for remains of the meteorite, which landed on the seabed earlier this year.

The reason for this is that the meteor didn't burn up on entering the atmosphere, which means the meteorite could contain extraterrestrial metal that scientists haven't come across before.

The NASA mission reports its first success

The official website of the expedition's research vessel, Nautilus, has reported that the first fragments of the meteorite have have already been found. Two fragments, which are thought to be from the crashed meteorite, are currently being investigated by Fries and his team.

Fries' expedition was planned in June in conjunction with research vessel Nautilus, which happened to be operating in the same area as the crash site.

Nautilus is equipped with state-of-the-art deep-sea robots, called ROVs, designed to scan the seabed with cameras and special sensing instruments. A kind of "magnetic rod" is used to scan the floor for metallic material.

As the researchers are hoping to make further discoveries in as large an area as possible within a short time, the vessel is also using wave technology to find hard objects among the soft areas of the seabed: the harder the object, the more the measuring device deflects waves.

Fortunately, Fries believes impact location is likely limited to an area of about one square kilometre.

The success of this NASA project could be a huge scientific milestone

If the mission is a success, NASA hopes to learn more about the composition and behaviour of meteorites — this meteorite could contain high-temperature-resistant materials, an area on which researchers have been trying to focus their efforts in recent years.

You can follow the expedition and the work of the Nautilus in the livestream on nautiluslive.org.

Den Originalartikel gibt es auf Business Insider Deutschland. This post originally appeared on Business Insider Deutschland and has been translated from German. Copyright 2018. Und ihr könnt Business Insider Deutschland auf Twitter folgen.

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