What Extraterrestrial Spinels Found on Earth Tell Us About our Solar System.

Through studying these spinel grains from various time periods of their chemical and isotopic structure, we can evaluate the differences in the movement of different forms of meteorites that impacted Earth over the times. We can also obtain knowledge about ancient occurrences in our solar system, such as the break-up of 100-km-sized objects that contributed to the formation of asteroid groups of 1000s of bodies in the asteroid belt.

Significant disruptions of the asteroid belt, as seen in the meteorite flux, can also suggest tiny disturbances of the orbits of the planets, likely linked to large-scale astronomical disturbances of the solar system. This gives us clues about the constellation of the asteroid belt and the events that happened in the solar system long time ago, and how this impacted our Earth.

Almost all meteorite forms contain a trace of spinel minerals, which withstand weathering and can be recovered by acid-dissolution of large samples (100–1000 kg) of progressively formed sediments of any age. Spinel grains are extracted from micrometeorites, meteorites, or asteroids and also provide important data on the varieties of extraterrestrial matter that fell on Earth at distinct periods in the geological past.

In summary, the spinel statement given here will enable us to consistently, in great detail, and on a strictly scientific backing, correlate major astronomical events to the sequence of microbial, geologic, and climatic occurrences on Earth. A pioneer astro chronology for Earth's geological record can be established, supplementing existing bio-, chemo-, and magnetostratigraphies.

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