(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Field Museum scientist has identified a new and rare meteorite.
The space rock was found recently in the Sahara Desert, where it could have been for 10 years or 10 million years. Now, it’s at the Chicago museum, where it was identified and classified — and named NWA 13993.
Maria Valdes, the Field’s Meeker postdoctoral researcher, CT-scanned the object to see if there were any interesting geological features inside and then sliced into it with a diamond-tipped saw.
Comparing the meteorite’s composition to NASA’s Dawn space mission, Valdes said it proved a match to the asteroid known as Vesta, which is about 600,000 miles from Earth.
“Vesta is the second-largest asteroid in the asteroid belt. It’s the brightest one, too. You can actually see it with the naked eye if you're looking for it,” she said.
Valdes tells WBBM the new meteorite could help us better understand the history of our planet because, unlike Earth, asteroids are frozen in time.
“By studying them, we can get a better idea of what the earth looked like initially and what kinds of processes took place to make it look the way it does today,” she said.
Only about 3% of all fallen space rocks can be tied to asteroid Vesta.
After a few more tests, the meteorite will join other space fragments and be on display at the Field Museum.
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