Researchers at Kent makes a significant contribution to a paper just published in Science Advances that provides new insight into objects located in the outer solar system.
At Kent, we are proud to have been part of the national effort to analyse the Winchcombe meteorite. This is the first UK meteorite recovered in 30 years and is a national treasure, with pieces literally on display in the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London. The Kent team (Luke Alesbrook, Mark Burchell, Luke Cornwell, Aishling Dignam, Matthias van Ginneken, Daniel Hallatt, Vassi Spathis and Penelope Wozniakiewicz) worked for several months conducting scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopy on the samples, giving insight into the physical and chemical nature of the meteorite. We are pleased to see that an article has now appeared in a major journal, with more papers to follow next year.
The front page of the Science Advances journal showing the authors of the paper with those from Kent highlighted in yellow.
Meanwhile, to close the circle, Kent staff are now analysing samples from the asteroid Ryugu, which were collected by the Japanese space agency mission Hayabusa2. This asteroid may be similar to the one the Winchcombe meteorite originally came from.