Why are meteorites considered important in determining the composition of Earths interior?
The current theory is that the solar system formed out of a spinning cloud of gas and dust. From this cloud came the sun, the planets, and smaller pieces of rock called asteroids. Since they all formed from the same starting material, studying one can tell us something about the other. We can’t use the surface of the Earth the same way, because the planet is large enough to have undergone density and melt fractionation, so the crust is different in composition than the majority of the planet. Asteroids that fall to Earth and survive are termed meteorites, and they are usually a lot easier to sample than the Earth’s interior. A lot of meteorites have been found in Antarctica, where they stand out very well against the white ice. There are also several kinds of meteorites, and they can tell us different things. “Chondrites” contain chondrules, which are sub-spherical particles of rock that appear to have solidified directly from the original solar system cloud. Therefore, these are the m
