What is it about?

At the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC) we work on extraterrestrial materials using a clean room serving as petrographic laboratory for our Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences group (group leader Prof. Dr. Trigo-Rodríguez). We study and characterize meteorites, and returned samples from space missions (e.g. Stardust and Hayabusa). We host a meteorite collection, and our research institute is an international repository of NASA Antarctic Meteorites arrived from the Johnson Space Center. At the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC) we have state-of-the-art instrumentation to study meteorites and returned samples under clean laboratory conditions. We also cooperate with other researchers in order to apply new research techniques to get insight on these fascinating rocks arrived from distant locations of our Solar System. In particular, we study the bulk chemistry, mineralogy, and other physico-chemical properties of thick and thin sections of the samples arrived to our clean laboratory. A Zeiss Scope petrographic microscope is used to study carefully the thin sections of the samples and perform accurate measurements.

As CSIC professional researchers and members of the Meteoritical Society with dilated experience in analytical techniques we are leading experts in meteorite characterization. In fact, we have named the last meteorite falls occurred in Spain (Ardón, Puerto Lápice and Villalbeto de la Peña) plus others meteorites fell recently in South America like e.g. Berduc and Cali, among others also found. We characterize the meteorites using the most modern instrumental techniques that allow us to infer if the studied rock is a meteorite or not, and to classify it accordingly the known meteorite classes and groups. We are experts in chondrites, rocks arrived from asteroids, but also working in achondrites reaching the Earth from planetary bodies. In fact, as demonstrated in our publications in first quartile journals, we have characterized chondrites arrived to Earth from asteroids and achondrites from Mars, the Moon, or Vesta, for example. Our group is also specialized in aqueous alteration in meteorites, so we infer the action of water in the parent bodies of the meteorites, before the rock arrived to Earth. One of our research goals is defining the pathways in which the water was delivered to our planet.

RESEARCH TECHNIQUES TO STUDY METEORITES AND RETURNED SAMPLES
The incorporation of Dr. Trigo-Rodríguez to the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC) in 2006 after a 3 years postdoc at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) allowed our center to apply many of the research techniques used by the famous IGPP meteorite group lead by Prof. John Wasson (group originally classifying the chondrites), but also explore other techniques with CSIC-UAB-UPC experts in science of materials. Among the instrumental techniques currently used by our group in Barcelona to characterize meteorites and returned samples, and citing just those in which our group has dilated expertise, we cite:

- Petrographic and polarization microscopy (thin sections’ integral mapping)
- Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray microscopy
- Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).
- Raman spectroscopy.
- X-ray Diffraction (XRD) of meteorite powders.
- Reflectance spectroscopy using Shimadzu UV-3600 spectrometer, and IR ATR spectrometer at UPC
- Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING SOURCES.
This ongoing research on Meteoritica at CSIC-IEEC wants to be example of cooperation with other research groups around the world. Our research publications exemplify the way in which we understand collaborative science, also involving PhD students and early carrier ICE researchers. In particular, we offer to the community the identification and classification of meteorites in Spain because our research has been funded in a continuous way through three consecutive research projects lead by our PI Prof. Dr. Trigo-Rodríguez: AYA2011-26522, AYA2015-67175-P y PGC2018-097374-B-I00 (FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Agencia Estatal de investigación). In the last decade three PhD theses have been defended with the highest rates of scientific excellence. We have being also funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to plan specific programs and related experiments in the framework of space missions.

Why is it important?

We are in charge of the recovery of new meteorites in Spain, where we have characterized, and named three new meteorites fell in our country: Ardón, Puerto Lápice and Villalbeto de la Peña. We coordinate the Spanish Fireball and Meteorite Network that has reconstructed the orbits of several meteorite falls by tracking their fireballs from the ground, the first one being Villalbeto de la Peña L6 chondrite.

 

   
   

 

   

 

   

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