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Over three hundred years ago, a meteorite landed in the German town of Steinbach.
Back in 1724 the meteor was quite something.
But now in 2025, this particular meteor is still causing scientists to marvel at its peculiarities, with researchers from Columbia Engineering, the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne, and Sapienza University of Rome recently evidencing some unprecedented facts about the meteorite’s properties.
And their study, which has been recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is challenging much of what we know about thermodynamics.
NASA
After extracting a sample from the space rock, the researchers discovered the rare mineral silica tridymite.
This mineral has previously been found on Mars, and though rare on Earth is known to occur in volcanoes with high silica content, as it is only formed at an extremely high temperature and pressure.
And there’s something truly weird about this mineral.
In many senses of the word, silica tridymite is essentially heat proof, in that it doesn’t conduct heat in the same way as most materials that we know on our planet.
Columbia Engineering/Michele Simoncelli
Even at high temperatures, silica tridymite’s thermal conductivity is constant, thanks to its unique atomic structures.
Far from just being fascinating to behold, all this has given scientists plenty of ideas when it comes to planning for the future of our species and our planet.
In particular, they hold that silica tridymite could be used in manufacturing, to make processes more efficient and reduce their impact on the environment.
Because it’s really important that we are able to reduce our species’ effects on the environment, even if it takes materials from elsewhere in our solar system to do so.
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.
Categories: SCI/TECH
Tags: · atomic structure, climate crisis, mars, meteor, meteorite, science, silica tridymite, single topic, space, space research, sustainability, thermal conductivity, thermodynamics, top