UrFU young scientists’ findings will shed light on our planet’s future

15:05, January 19, 2016

Ural Federal University is becoming an international center for meteoritic matter research, says Viktor Grokhovsky

The preliminary results of the first Russian Meteorite Expedition were announced yesterday by Professor Viktor Grokhovsky. The expedition was organized by Ural Federal University with the support of students, teachers and partner organizations. Prof. Grokhovsky believes that the University is becoming an international center for meteoritic matter research.

Last Saturday the expedition returned to Ekaterinburg with two meteorites and lots of other samples bearing structural resemblance to meteorites.

“We will be able to learn a lot about the origin of the Universe and the future of the Earth”, says Professor Grokhovskiy. “The analysis is going to take approximately half a year”.

As UrFU rector Viktor Koksharov points out, the project might gain an international status before the end of this year: Indian colleagues have announced their willingness to join the scientists.

The expedition began on December 16. During two weeks the scientists collected over 300 samples in the region of the Lomonosov Mountains at the South Pole. The meteoritic origin for two of the samples was confirmed immediately in the field.

The meteorites found by the expedition will be studied in one of the UrFU laboratories under the guidance of Professor Viktor Grokhovsky, who was the initiator of the expedition. The other samples and cubes of blue ice will be shipped to Ekaterinburg from Novolazarevskaya station in April.

Reference

UrFU meteorite expedition to Antarctic took place in the framework of the 61stRussian Antarctic Expedition. The author of the expedition project is UrFU professor Viktor Grokhovsky.

UrFU Antarctic Meteorite Expedition has been the first scientific project in the history of modern Russia aimed at search of meteoritic matter on the southernmost continent.  It became possible thanks to the participation of the university in the “Project 5-100”. The budget of the expedition is estimated at about 12.8 million rubles, most of the sum being provided by Ural Federal University. Thanks to the efforts of the UrFU Students’ Union, 500 thousand rubles were collected by means of crowdfunding, some part was invested by sponsors. For example, Ekaterinburg Engineering Company Plana invested 1 million rubles. The clothes for the members of the expedition were prepared by the local company Discovery, while the food supply was provided by NL International.