In a meteorite found in Buryatia, scientists have discovered a new material based on vanadium nitride; the mineral is described and registered under the name wakitite.
Scientists from the Ural Federal University (UrFU, Yekaterinburg), together with colleagues from Novosibirsk and Ulan-Ude, discovered a new mineral in the Uakit iron meteorite (named after the village of Bauntovsky Evenk region of Buryatia), which was found in 2016. The opening was presented at the Meeting of the International Meteorite Society, which is taking place in Moscow for the first time in Russia, the press service of the university reported on Thursday. The mineral is composed of vanadium nitride.
According to the professor of UrFU Viktor Grokhovsky, in order to prove the discovery of a new substance or mineral, it was necessary to obtain data on its crystal structure. "Since the size of the particles of uakitite is very small and is about 1-5 microns, it was impossible to study its structure by the traditional method of X-ray analysis," the press service of the professor said.
Buryat meteorite Uakit.
To study the material at UrFU, a specialized laboratory Extra Terra Consortium was created, which occupies a leading position in the study of space matter. In addition, this year the Ural university plans to launch the first master's program in Russia in the study of instruments and methods of space mineralogy.
The first searches for meteorites outside the Russian Federation were organized as part of the 61st Russian Antarctic Expedition from December 2015 to January 2016 on the territory of the Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. In 2017, trips were organized to the Deshte Lut Desert in Iran and the Atacama Desert in Chile.