New analysis reveals the brutal history of the Winchcombe meteorite's journey through space
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Intensive new nano-analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite has revealed how it was affected by water and repeatedly smashed apart and reassembled on the journey it took through space before landing in an English sheep field in 2021.
Researchers from dozens of institutions in the UK, Europe, Australia, and the U.S. collaborated on the research. Together, they subjected mineral grains in fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite to a diverse range of cutting-edge analytical techniques.
Their work, which was conducted on a scale more typically reserved for investigating samples returned to Earth by multibillion-dollar space missions, has given them unparalleled insight into the history of the Winchcombe meteorite in the process.
Their analysis has helped them roll back the clock to the meteorite's earliest days as an ice-bearing dry rock, then trace its transformation through the melting of the ice into a ball of mud which was broken apart and rebuilt over and over again.
