‘Extra-terrestrial water’ discovered in last year’s meteor that fell in the UK

In a meteorite that struck a road in the UK village of Winchcombe in the Cotswolds last year, extraterrestrial water was discovered.

One of the most well-known meteorites in the UK is allegedly the Winchcombe meteorite. But it wasn’t until recently that scientists discovered that the sample included water in an amount of at least 12%.

The meteorite might provide scientists with information about the origin of the planet’s enormous oceans. Ashley King, a researcher in the planetary materials section at the Natural History Museum, reportedly stated that the specimen is not just one of the least contaminated ones discovered to date but also composed of 12% water.

King added that the Winchcombe meteorite’s water’s chemical make-up is ‘quite very similar’ to that of the planet’s oceans. He remarked at the British Science Festival, ‘It’s a really good piece of evidence that asteroids and bodies like Winchcombe made a very big contribution to the Earth’s oceans.

The fact that the half-kilogram meteorite was recovered within 12 hours of the crash is one of the reasons it wasn’t overly contaminated, according to King.

The researcher claims that this is the first meteorite to have fallen in the UK that included extraterrestrial water, however it is trapped in minerals.

In an interview, he reportedly said that ‘one of the big questions we have in planetary sciences is where did the water on Earth come from? And one of the obvious places is either through comets that have loads and loads of ice in them or asteroids.’