Lost in space: Why some meteorites look less 'shocked' than others

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Scientists have long wondered why carbon-rich meteorites appear less affected by violent impacts than those lacking the stuff. They may finally have an answer.

Lost in space: Why some meteorites look less 'shocked' than others : Read more

 

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In carbon-containing meteorites, impacts create extremely hot carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases (yellow). Kosuke Kurosawa, lead author of an April 2025 study about the phenomenon, said: “We found that the momentum of the ensuing explosion is enough to eject the highly shocked rock material (red) into space. Such explosions occur on carbon-rich meteorites (left), but not on carbon-poor ones (right).” The team thus concluded that carbon-containing meteorites are no less shocked, but that, in fact, the evidence is simply removed

The above (which is a diagram caption) is a good summary of this interesring paper.

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