Meteorite containing material billions of years old discovered in Antarctica

Scientists say they’ve found a space rock for the ages in #Antarctica — an extremely rare #meteorite that contains some of the oldest material in the solar system.

“When we saw this one just sitting by itself in the middle of the blue ice, we all got so excited,” Chicago Field Museum researcher Maria Valdes told the Chicago Tribune.

The 17-pound meteorite, described as about “the size of a gourd,” was discovered Jan. 5 by an international team at the end of an 11-day expedition.

The extraordinary rock, which contains material from billions of years ago, is one of the largest meteorites ever found on the continent and likely originated in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, The Independent reported.

“To put the meteorite’s size in perspective, of the 45,000 meteorites retrieved from Antarctica over the last century, only 100 are this size or larger,” said Chicago’s Field Museum, which was part of the expedition.

An incredible find for these scientists