Kaidun

The Kaidun meteorite fell to earth on December 3, 1980 at a Soviet military base in the former South Yemen . A total of 841.5 g of material was recovered from this meteorite .

Kaidun is unique in the great diversity of its mineralogical composition. The Kaidun matrix corresponds to that of CR2 chondrites . However, there are also many inclusions of material that corresponds to other meteorite classes, for example other carbonaceous meteorite classes or of enstatite chondrites . Two inclusions, which are rich in alkali metals , were also found, which are otherwise very rare in meteorites and must originally have come from a differentiated celestial body with an iron-rich core and silicate coat. Because of this extraordinary variety in composition, the moons of Mars , especially Phobos , have been suggested as the original body of this meteorite. According to this theory, the alkali-rich inclusions would ultimately have come from Mars and would have been transported to Phobos in the event of an asteroid impact.

In this meteorite, some minerals were also found that were not previously observed in nature, such as FeTiP ( Florenskyite ) and FeCrP ( Andreyivanovite ).

See also: List of meteorites

Web links

• Article in Astrobiology Magazine (Engl.) ( Memento of 20 May 2004 at the Internet Archive )
• Florenskyit at Webmineral (Engl.)
• ( Verndasky Institute): Report of the case ( Memento from January 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive )