UC Davis Professor Searches For Space Secrets In Meteorite
DAVIS (CBS13) - Professor Quin-Zhu Yin considers this a defining moment in his geology career.
He's dedicated to studying a rock so rare it's out of this world. The meteorite, called Rick's after the guy who donated it to UC Davis, came from that mini van-sized meteor that made a crash landng into the tiny town of Coloma in El Dorado County.
"Very exciting. Imagine how long it's been out there," the professor said Tuesday.
The meteor is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.
"It's great. It's amazing," a lab researcher said.
Researchers are now taking it apart to learn what it's made of, where it came, how it was forme - and when was its birthday?
Professor Yin is proud to have a machine, which is in only five labs in the country, and all the tools necessary for this exploration of outer space right here in Davis.
Here's what they've learned so far about the so called Sutter's Mill meteor: it has all the elements of the Periodic Table plus some material we've never seen on Earth. It also contains extinct radioactivity, which means it was radioactive when it was just a baby
Since it contains amino acids, the building blocks of life, the professor is convinced this could lead to information on life in outer space, information earthlings can use for generations…
He's named each piece donated to the lab but needs more. He's asking locals to keep searching El Dorado County for atmospheric rocks, rocks that may be worth a few thousand bucks.
But if donated to this lab, the answers they may hold, this professor says, have no price tag.
