Edscottite is an iron carbide mineral, with the formula Fe5C2. It was previously known to occur during iron smelting, but in 2019 was identified as occurring in nature, but not naturally occurring on earth, when it was discovered in a meteorite.[1]
The source, the Wedderburn meteorite, was found in 1951 just outside Wedderburn in Australia, and is held in the Museums Victoria collection.[2]
During a re-investigation of a section of the meteorite housed at the University of California, Los Angeles, Chi Ma and Alan Rubin verified the presence of a new mineral.[3] They named it edscottite in honor of Edward (Ed) R. D. Scott of the University of Hawaii, USA, a pioneering cosmochemist.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Mannix, Liam (2019-08-31). "This meteorite came from the core of another planet. Inside it, a new mineral". The Age. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
- ^ "Wedderburn meteorite". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
- ^ Ma, Chi; Rubin, Alan E. (2019). "Edscottite, Fe5C2, a new iron carbide mineral from the Ni-rich Wedderburn IAB iron meteorite". American Mineralogist. 104 (9): 1351–1355. doi:10.2138/am-2019-7102. ISSN 1945-3027.
- ^ "Edscottite | New Carbon Mineral". mineralchallenge.net. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
Further reading
edit- Goldstein, Joseph I. (2008). "2008 Leonard Medal for Edward R. D. Scott". Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 43 (S7): A5–A192. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.2008.tb00706.x. ISSN 1086-9379.
- List of Scott's work compiled by ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2132315612_Edward_R_D_Scott
- Edward R. D. Scott (1947–2021): A tribute to an exceptional scientist and wonderful man, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.13777