A reflection over Meteor Crater , Arizona, June 27, 2022
Today I visited the Meteor Crater in Arizona which is the first proven and best preserved meteor crater on earth, 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s huge, three quarters of a mile wide and 350 feet deep. The view of the Meteor Crater is fantastic, especially knowing the data as shown below the picture.
50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickel meteorite or dense cluster of meteorites about 150 feet across and weighting several hundred thousand tons, struck the rocky plain at speed of 26,000 miles per hour (with this speed, it only takes 5 mins fly from Los Angels to New York ). The explosive force is greater than 20 million tons of TNT and 150 times greater than the atomic bomb!
I have been very interested in Meteorites for long time, attracted at first by the flying “rock head” as I saw from space documentaries. And that’s why I chose a video clip of a flying meteorites from WIX web-builder as my homepage background. Later on, I did some research about Meteorites, and it attracts me more as I know more about it. Hereafter I summarize some interesting findings from my study and my reflection over the facts: meteorites contains not only the earliest water on Earth but also the raw organic materials of life. Hope it will give you, as it gave me, a new insight of the old quest who is the God or where life came from.
Before I start, let me clarify the many names so not to confuse: astroid, meteoroid, meteor, meteorite:
Asteroid: A rocky object that orbits the sun and has an average size between a meteoroid and a planet.
Meteoroid: A “space rock”—a relatively small object traveling through space, between the size of a grain of dust and a small asteroid.
Meteor: A meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up, making a bright streak of light.
Meteorite: A meteoroid hitting Earth’s surface, and the parts or fragments that not consumed by frictional heating, finally lands on the Earth.
1. Meteor, The Creator of Earth and Life
From a movie series How Earth Was Made on Amazon prime, I learnt that the meteoroids in solar system are the building blocks of planets including early Earth.
The above image is an artist’s illustration of the asteroid belt by NASA/JPL-Caltech (from SciTechDaily.com).
In the beginning of our solar system, there was nothing but gas and dust. As it cools, solid asteroid rocks began to form. As the meteoroids floated in early space, they collided and grew into bigger bodies and formed planets including early Earth. It is through the ancient meteorites fell on Earth, scientists determined the age of Earth and solar system is about 4.6B years same as the meteorites.
The meteoroids not only formed the Earth, but also was found to be the earliest home of organic material. Meteorites contains amino acids, the complex molecules are essential building blocks of all organic life. The raw organic material inside Meteorite is the raw material which life began on our own planet. So it’s possible that seeds of life on Earth arrived from space flown in by asteroids and meteorites.
Another scientific research of this was published on ScienceAdvance, it concludes that “The extensive variety of organics hosted in the halite suggests that the original parent asteroid, where the halite precipitated plausibly by Ceres, contains a combination of precursor molecules for complex chemical reactions to occur”. Ceres is a brown dwarf planet and the largest object in our asteroid belt. is a potential “parent” of the meteorites, thus, the “great-grand parent” of life on Earth.
2. Meteorites, The Creator of Water on Earth
We know life on earth originated from ocean water. But where the water came from? I read a CNN News from space.com published on 2021 titled “ Scientists find liquid water inside a meteorite, revealing clues about the early solar system”. It is about a study of meteorites fragments collected by NASA, which formed 4.6 billion years ago and fell to Earth in 2012. Scientists have spotted water in this primitive meteorite. It is said: “if the water in those minerals contributed to Earth's water, then it can be considered the "parent" of Earth's water, and the meteorites hosting these minerals, therefore, the "grandparent material of Earth's water.”
There is an earlier research paper published on PSRD (Planetary Science Research) website in 1999 that scientists discovered strikingly purple salt crystals (halite) in two meteorites. The salt contains tiny droplets of salt water as old as the Solar System.
During the earth Earth formation, It was the water inside the salts of meteorites when melted and released, formed the first ocean water on Earth. The earth was not only formed by by meteoroids at early stage, there have been continuous supply of meteorites from space. The estimate is thousands of tons of meteorites falling on the Earth every year and most of them are tiny dust-sized particles that are never noticed.
3. Meteorites -The Creator of Tombstone on Earth
Meteorites are not just a creator of life, but also the creator of death. With over 200 million years domination on Earth, about 65 million years ago, dinosaur was suddenly and completely vanished from Earth. Over 70% of species on earth were also wiped out.
This vast extinction has been a mystery over generations until one day a breakthrough geology discovery made in Colorado USA, finding a very thin layer of rock, so called “tombstone”, formation of exactly 65 million years old, which indicating a sudden extinction of dinosaur.
Started from the special high content of iridium in the tombstone, a rare element most originates from space rock deposited by meteorites, scientist finally found out the extinction was caused by the event that the Earth was hit by an enormous meteor. It was in Mexico, a hidden meteor crater over 100 miles across was discovered and its age is precisely 65 million year ago. It was hit by a meteor of 6 miles in diameter, 200 times bigger than the Meteor Crater in Arizona and 30,000 times greater than the atomic bomb!
4. The Holy Belief in Rock at Earth Center
One common belief from Bible and Greek Mythology is the worship of rock, and both have identified a piece of rock worshipped as the holy rock placed by God at the center of Earth.
This makes perfect sense to me now, knowing that life on Earth came from the core rock of Earth which in turn came from the space rocks. When I read again the story of Greek Mythology how man was made of stones, it makes even more sense to me:
"The god Deucalion and goddess Pyrrha cast the stones behind them, from each of those Deucalion cast sprang up a man, and from Pyrrha’s stones sprang women. -from Greek Myths by Oliva Coolidge.
This echos to the hidden truth that seeds of life on Earth arrived from space flown or casted in by asteroids and meteorites.
Another common story from Bible and Greek Myology is that God destroyed life by flood when he was not satisfied with his creation. This, in my view, echos to Earth history of continuous tectonic movement forming and changing land and ocean, and leading life evolution through massive extinction. The flood should indicate the expanding ocean water on Earth, while the water originated from the Meteorites. Therefore, the far image of God in religion who created the flood reflect the meteorite from universe in science.
5. Meteorites, the Mythical Rock Heads
Before I have any knowledge of Meteorites, I was immediately attracted by these flying rocks, simply because they all look like giant Rock Head, more than any other rocks. You can find it from many internet images and above is an example.
It should be the next mystery to discover why it is so. If meteoroids carries the seeds of life and forms all planets, it is not difficult to imagine that far before earth was formed, or after earth is died, life was already in somewhere beyond earth and will never die out in universe. The Titans as imagined by Greek Mythology, who came before the gods that created life on earth, could indicates another truth that giant cosmetic human exiting in the Universe before Earth was formed. With this thought, when I examine the Meteor Crater yesterday, I pay attention to many rock faces by the crater, again as my habit and no surprise, found many human faces from the rocks.
6. The Impact on Life and Earth
The movie shown in Meteor Crater Theater, named The Impact, is very inspiring. It make me think why does human always like and dream to make Impact on life and on Earth? It must be the deep rooted nature from Meteor. If look at the human society with a telescope view, all men on earth are simply like a cloud of meteoroids in universe, each growing through collision and obtaining energy from other body. Bigger body creates bigger impact on earth and gain longer life cycles. This should be the ultimate drive to create impact, as beyond the physical life, there is a spirit life with much longer longevity which related to how big the impact one can create and how long can be remembered (remained), just like each different meteor crater on earth.
With this wonder, I like to share a personal joke that I often make with my husband. As I feel his head has many “craters” without knowing what's the cause. I joked that it might be an evidence that he has been evolved so far ahead and the genetic "roots" from meteor craters show out on his head. Just like old tree when grow so old, the roots appear on the top branches. He simply says: all nonsenses.
Well, hope my tireless efforts of searching answers of big quests from nonsenses can eventually create a small impact crater because of my unique life on Earth, no matter how small and it would be.