News

November 14-15th saw the first Geological Society of London (UK) GeoFutures conference on planetary science! GeoFutures is the Geological Society's new conference series focusing on 21st century geoscience and the solutions that geoscientists provide to global challenges, and was twinned with the Geological Society of America. 

Our curator and EPMA lab manager, Dr Jennifer Mitchell, presented some work on an important indicator of thermal metamorphism on the largest igneous asteroid in the solar system, highlighting the capabilities in the UMN Characterization Facility.

Planetary science is a very friendly scientific community, and we're always more than happy to share resources and experiences!

This summer, Dr Emily First of Macalester College (Saint Paul, MN) came to do some very exciting work on some samples from the Moon at the UMN Probe Lab. In return, she invited our own Dr Jennifer Mitchell to give a guest lecture on all the fascinating things about meteorites and how to build a planet.

Learn about meteorites here

This September saw the start of the new academic year, and with that our graduate students were invited to sign up for a number of committees within the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences.  We're pleased to welcome our four new student volunteers Zsuzsanna, Daoheng, Sithari, and Ishmael to the University of Minnesota Meteorite Committee! They'll be helping manage the collection and engaging with interested member of the public. 

Ever wondered what the difference between a meteor and a meteorite is? Dr Jennifer Mitchell helped answer that really common question with the University's outreach team in the latest installment of Science Simplified. 

As Jennifer summarizes, it's a meteor until it hits the ground!

Lab manager and meteorite classifier Dr Jennifer Mitchell travelled to Belgium to attend the 86th annual meeting of the Meteoritical Society to present her research on some unusual material in a meteorite from asteroid Vesta, as well as to present a poster on our brand new meteorite repository! 

Link to abstract: Mitchell et al., A Basaltic Andesite from Vesta: Evidence of a Highly Fractionated Lithology

Link to abstract: Mitchell & Alexander Jr., A New Meteorite Repository from a Historical Collection at the University of Minnesota

Eos is a science news magazine that published an article on the Winchcombe meteorite following the release of a new paper led by Dr. Daly at the University of Glasgow. Eos' science writer Damond Benningfield reached out to Dr. Jennifer Mitchell for a few comments on this new study as she was part of the research team in her previous role at the University of Plymouth, UK. 

The Winchcombe meteorite records a surprisingly complicated history and might help researchers understand one of the big questions in planetary science: how did Earth get all its water?

Link to article: "A Splashy Meteorite Was Forged in Multiple Collisions"

The first meteorite classification submitted to the Meteoritical Society Nomenclature Committee as part of the UMin repository has been approved and named Northwest Africa (NWA) 16314. This meteorite was brought for classification by C. Zlimen of Minnesota Meteorites LLC on behalf of the owners M. Lyon and E. McFadden.

NWA 16314 is L5 chondrite and has a total mass of 6.2kg. The type specimen held in the UMin repository weighs 86g. 

A number of other meteorites were submitted for approval at the same time, and we look forwards to getting their official names!

The University of Minnesota has been approved as an official meteorite repository, designated "UMin", by the Meteoritical Society and is the 23rd repository in the USA. This means that we are able to classify new meteorites and retain the type specimens at the University. Not only can we provide a safe home for our fascinating meteorite samples, we can help share material with the scientific community to continue the ongoing efforts to understand the early Solar System and the evolution of planets. 

Most rocks brought to us to identify are terrestrial (from Earth), but sometimes we get lucky! In an unusual turn of events, two people who purchased some rocks at an estate sale ended up with 3.2kg (7lb) iron meteorite. A sample has been sent off for classification and we look forwards to learning more about this meteorite, which we propose should be named "Middle River". 

Read more about Minnesota's 10th meteorite