Two Minerals Never Seen Before in Nature Discovered In an Asteroid That Fell to Earth - ScienceAlert

The minerals have been named elaiite and elkinstantonite, and their discovery was announced by planetary geologist Chris Herd of the University of Alberta in Canada at the Space Exploration Symposium on 21 November.

Prospectors looking for opal in the area in 2019, intrigued by the strange, pitted rock, struck off some samples and sent them to Herd and for analysis and classification at the University of Alberta's Meteorite Collection.

In collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the California Institute of Technology, Herd soon determined Nightfall was an iron meteorite belonging to the IAB complex, and officially named it El Ali, after the nearby town.

"The very first day he did some analyses, he said, 'You've got at least two new minerals in there'," Herd says.

"I never thought I'd be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.".

The scientists are trying to track it down, in the hope of working with meteorite dealers and collectors to obtain more pieces of the rock and conduct further research