14-Feb-2023: Meteorite crash in Banaskantha, Gujarat

Scientists from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, are claiming that the meteorite that crashed in two villages in Banaskantha, Gujarat on August 17, 2022, has been identified as aubrite.

Diyodar Meteorite

• This is the second recorded crash of an aubrite in India and named Diyodar meteorite after the taluka in which the villages with the crash sites are located.
• Identified as aubrite by the Gamma-ray spectrometer used to determine mineral composition. Classified as a monomict breccia.
• Aubrite meteorite is a coarse-grained igneous rock formed in oxygen-poor conditions and contains exotic minerals not found on Earth.
• Last crash of an aubrite was in Basti, Uttar Pradesh on December 2, 1852. Around 90% of meteorite is composed of orthopyroxene. Pyroxenes are silicates consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra.

Mineral heideite(not found on earth) was first described in Basti meteorite.