UrFU Scientists Meteorite Expedition to the Iranian Desert

16:53, January 12, 2017

The scientists are sure that 80% of findings have extraterrestrial origin

On January 11, the participants of the Iranian Meteorite Expedition organized by Ural Federal University came back to Ekaterinburg. The scientists Mikhail Larionov and Nikolay Kruglikov and engineers-researchers Aleksandr Pastukhovich and Dmitry Zamyatin spend 10 days (January 1-10) in the Loot Desert (Iran).

According to the participants of the expedition, they managed to find 12-14 kg of samples, which have characteristics similar to meteorites.

 “We tested magnetic properties of the found materials using sticks with magnet-ending”, said Dmitry Zamyatin.

According to the head of the expedition Alexander Pastukhovich, one part of the samples was left in Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (Iran) for further studies. The part which was brought to Ekaterinburg will be studied in the Scientific and Educational Center of UrFU “Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies”. The Center is also has the status of repository.

It was not the first expedition for the team. Last year the scientists visited Antarctica to search for the meteorites. The scientific head of the expeditions is an outstanding scientist and UrFU Professor Victor Grokhovsky.