Scientists collect fresh meteorites fallen in Sudan’s White Nile State

June 25, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese Ministry of Minerals, on Sunday, said they found fragments of meteorites which struck the earth this week in a remote area of the White Nile in the south of the country.

The head of the geological team, dispatched by the General Authority for Geological Research (GAGR), the technical arm of the Ministry of Mineral, Osman Abu Aqla, said the team collected some fragments of the meteor in Alabbasiya area of Kosti locality in the State of the White Nile.

He said that the retrieved samples are stone meteorites, noting that such meteorites have scientific value and contribute to studies and research.

There are three types of meteorites: stone, iron, and stony-iron. The stone meteorites once formed part of the outer crust of a planet or asteroid.

The meteorite matter is believed to originate from the birth of our solar system, around 4.5 billion years ago.

Abu Aqla said the scientific team surveyed all the areas where the meteorites had been observed in the White Nile State.

Eyewitnesses told the local media that the meteorite matter had the size of a small car, adding it fell from space at dawn on Wednesday. The said that the fall caused a strong sound and a bright light that illuminated the night sky of several areas in the state

Abu Aqla said that the team took samples for analysis at the GAGR central laboratory for the study of rocks in Khartoum.

He further said they measured the radioactivity of collected samples of the meteorites but they found it normal.

(ST)