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Antarctic Meteorites Melting at Alarming Rate

Scientists are in a race to examine the extraterrestrial bodies that contain clues about Earth’s origins before they vanish

By Paul Smaglik
Apr 11, 2024 1:00 PM
Vanishing Meteorites
(Credit: Veronica Tollenaar, Université Libre de Bruxelles) Field guide in a blue ice area during a mission to take ice samples.

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As global air temperatures increase, the number of Antarctic meteorites shrinks. By 2050, about a quarter of the 3-800,000 meteorites there will melt away, according to a report from a team of researchers from Switzerland and Belgium.

The team drew upon artificial intelligence, satellite observations, and climate model projections to determine that, for every tenth of a degree increase in global air temperature, an average of nearly 9,000 meteorites will disappear from Antarctica’s ice sheet.

The Impact of Climate Change on Meteorites

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