1.8 Allende - A World Famous Meteorite – Henning Haack

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Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life

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University of Copenhagen

Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life

373 ratings

The Origins course tracks the origin of all things – from the Big Bang to the origin of the Solar System and the Earth. The course follows the evolution of life on our planet through deep geological time to present life forms.

From the lesson

Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets

In the first module of Origins Jim Connelly and Henning Haack go through the evolution that resulted in the Solar System with the planets that we know today. Jim will tell you about how the elements of the periodic table were formed. Without these elements there would be no Solar System, no planets and no life at all. We have added a couple of more videos that we hope you will also find interesting. One gives you an introduction to Geological time. Videos 1.7-1.9 deals with some of our most interesting meteorites from the collections at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Much of the evidence for the theories presented in Module 1 has been obtained from meteorites.

1.1 Nucleosynthesis: the origin of elements in our Solar System - Part 1 – Jim Connelly11:35

1.2 Nucleosynthesis: the origin of elements in our Solar System - Part 2 – Jim Connelly9:56

1.3 Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets - Origin of the Solar System – Henning Haack9:29

1.4 Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets - Meteorites – Henning Haack17:17

1.5 Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets - Mars and the Moon – Henning Haack18:06

1.6 Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets - Exoplanets – Henning Haack2:55

1.7 The Worlds Largest Meteorite Slice – Henning Haack4:22

1.8 Allende - A World Famous Meteorite – Henning Haack2:48

1.9 Imilac - An Exceptionally Beautiful Meteorite Slice – Henning Haack1:11

Meet the Instructors

Henning Haack
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum
James Connelly
Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Vivi Vajda
Professor
Department of Geology, Lund University
Jon Fjeldså
Professor, Curator
Thomas Gilbert
Professor
Michael Houmark-Nielsen
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Bent Erik Kramer Lindow
Curator
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Gilles Guy Roger Cuny
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Ole Seberg
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Gitte Petersen
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Tais Wittchen Dahl
Assistant Professor of Geobiology
Arne Thorshøj Nielsen
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Copenhagen
Martin Vinther Sørensen
Associate Professor, Curator
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Svend Stouge
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Danny Eibye Jacobsen
Associate Professor, Curator
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Jan Audun Rasmussen
Associate Professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark
Emily Catherine Pope
Assistant professor
Natural History Museum of Denmark

[MUSIC]

This is a large piece of the Allende meteorite,

one of the most famous meteorites of all.

It fell in Mexico in 1969.

An estimated 300 tons entered the atmosphere above Mexico and

created a brilliant fireball that was visible in the southern US, Mexico, and

Central America.

Fragments of the meteorite fell over a large area in

the province known as Allende.

And the area was about 80 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide.

And in total, two and a half tons was recovered.

1969 was also the year when the US landed on the moon.

All the labs were ready but they had nothing to

analyse because the lunar samples had not been brought back yet.

So when the Allende meteorite landed,

it was studied in all these state of the art laboratories.

And even today, more than 50 years later, we have more than 100 papers

a year based on new discoveries made in this meteorite, it's very important.

When you look at it you can see that it has a fusion crust dating back

to the time when this particular fragment was slowed down from supersonic speeds in

the atmosphere above Mexico.

Just one millimeter below in the surface we have undisturbed material dating back

to the birth of the solar system.

All of the particles below the surface here

can tell their own story about when and how the solar system formed.

The big, white thing you see here

is a calcium-aluminum-rich inclusion that I've discussed in the course.

We've dated an inclusion just like this one in a laboratory below my feet here,

in this building, and it turned out to be 4,567.3 million years, and

that is now the age accepted as the age of the solar system.

So, is it important whether the solar system is 4,567.3 or 0.8 or 0.9?

Not really.

The interesting thing is that we can take this thing apart, and

we can date each particle, and we can put them in chronological order and

follow how the solar system evolved, from its earliest phases and

up to the time where planets began to form.

We can read the whole story in this rock if we can understand the language it's

written in.

That's what we call geology.

So if you understand geology,

you can read the story of why we're here today in this very rock.

>> [MUSIC]

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