在著名陨石中发现的古行星遗迹
在著名陨石中发现的古行星遗迹
Though it was discovered in the Australian outback in the 1950s and has been studied often since then, researchers only just recently found a surprising result buried inside the Wedderburn meteorite — remnants of an ancient planet and a new mineral not seen in nature.
尽管它是在20世纪50年代在澳大利亚内陆被发现的，并且从那时起就经常被研究，研究人员只是最近才发现一个令人惊讶的结果，埋在韦德伯恩陨石中——一颗古老行星的残余物和一种在自然界中看不到的新矿物。
The 7-ounce red and black meteorite was found in Victoria, Australia, in 1951, but planetary scientist Geoffrey Bonnin told Australian news outlet The Age that it’s actually from the molten core of a planet from millions of years ago.
这颗重7盎司的红黑陨石于1951年在澳大利亚维多利亚州被发现，但行星科学家杰弗里·博宁(Geoffrey Bonnin)告诉澳大利亚新闻机构《时代》杂志，它实际上来自数百万年前一颗行星的熔岩核心。
“It got blasted apart,” Bonnin said in the interview.
“它被炸开了!”博宁在采访中说。
Rodney Start, Museums Victoria
As a result of the explosion, the meteorite, which had an abundance of carbon inside, became heated. The carbon fused with the iron inside and formed a new mineral known as edscottite, named after Edward Scott, a pioneering cosmochemist from the University of Hawaii.
由于这次爆炸，陨石内部含有丰富的碳，因而变热了。碳与内部的铁融合，形成了一种新的矿物，被称为edscottite，以夏威夷大学(University of Hawaii)宇宙化学家先驱爱德华·斯科特(Edward Scott)的名字命名。
Edscottite has been seen before, but only inside smelters, as iron is being turned into steel. It’s the fact that it has been seen in nature that has allowed researchers to give it its name.
埃斯考特铁矿以前曾被发现过，但只是在冶炼厂内部，因为铁正在被转变成钢。事实上，它已经在自然界中被发现，这使得研究人员给它起了个名字。
Bonnin added that “all rocks” are, to some degree, “a little bit radioactive.” He pointed out that as the planet exploded, it may have been hit by some other celestial object, causing a mass collision that sent an asteroid flying across the solar system.
波宁补充说，“所有的岩石”在某种程度上都有“一点放射性”。他指出，当行星爆炸时，它可能受到其他天体的撞击，造成了一次大规模碰撞，导致一颗小行星飞过太阳系。
From there, it entered the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and ultimately wound up on Earth.
从那里，它进入了火星和木星之间的小行星带，最终到达了地球。
The research has been published in the scientific journal American Mineralogist.
这项研究已经发表在科学杂志《美国矿物学家》上。
