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Here’s some oh wow! fun stuff to turn your head around. At least if you’re into Earth and evolution, including solar system evolution.
Wild discovery made, major work done in 2013 and I imagine since then results have been double checked and triple checked, until they felt comfortable announcing it.
Incredible 'Hypatia' Stone Contains Compounds Not Found in the Solar System The mysterious Egyptian rock contains micro-mineral compounds not found on Earth, in any meteorite or comet, or elsewhere in the solar system. By Jay Bennett | Jan 10, 2018 http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a15050414/incredible-hypatia-stone-contains-compounds-not-found-in-the-solar-system/ But it seems the space rock has a much more interesting past. A new study led by geologists at the University of Johannesburg found that compounds in the Hypatia stone are distinct from anything discovered in the solar system. The researchers therefore conclude that parts of the rock formed before the solar system, and if these compounds are not presolar, the prevailing idea that the solar system formed from a nebula of homogenous gas is called into question. "We think that many compounds (polyaromatic hydrocarbons, silicon carbide, nickel phosphide compound, native metal inclusions) are presolar," Jan Kramers, a geochemistry professor at the University of Johannesburg who has studied the Hypatia stone for years, told Popular Mechanics in an email. "The assembly probably occurred in the early solar nebula." Kramers, who led the 2013 study that identified the Hypatia stone as extraterrestrial, describes the rock's structure as similar to a fruit cake that has fallen into a pile of flour and cracked. The mineral matrix that makes up most of the rock is represented by the cake dough, while mineral grains embedded in the matrix are like the nuts and fruits, and the flour it fell into represents material that the Hypatia stone picked up when it impacted the Earth. Using sophisticated electron microscopy to determine . . .
Extra-terrestrial Hypatia stone rattles solar system status quo Date: January 9, 2018 Source: University of Johannesburg https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180109112437.htm Summary: Analyses on a small pebble found in south-west Egypt cast significant questions on a widely-held view about the primitive pre-solar dust cloud which our Sun, Earth and other planets were formed from. Researchers found exotic micro-mineral compounds in the 'Hypatia' stone that are not known to occur on Earth, elsewhere in our solar system, or in known meteorites or comets.