I was privileged to get the opportunity to chat with some of The Open University’s meteorite experts about the recent news concerning the recovery of the Winchcombe meteorite, the first UK meteorite in 3o years. This is a very exciting time for space scientists and my colleague Richard Greenwood who is on this call, was the first scientist on the scene, confirming that the rock found in the village of Winchcombe was indeed a meteorite. It is a carbonaceous chondrite, which are relatively rare in our collections on Earth, and is thought to have originated from as asteroid towards the outer edge of the asteroid belt, nearer to Jupiter. PhD student Ross Findlay, who is also on the call, joined us from the oxygen isotope lab at The Open University in Milton Keynes where he was analysing some of the rock samples at the time.
Interestingly, the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions went to sample asteroids that are very similar in composition to this one, with Hayabusa2 already having returned with its samples and OSIRIS-REx on its way home. But then the cosmos likes to play games with us and so it sent us a free sample of another one just for fun. No bother, say the scientists, they’re just happy to have any sample at all and having three separate ones is certainly no problem.