Question: what did you find out about the Winchcombe meteorite ?

Niamh Topping answered on 20 Nov 2025:

Good question! There’s a huge team of people looking at Winchcombe as we all work on different things, from looking for organics (this is things like amino acids which eventually form DNA) or looking for any trapped gases. I personally look at clay minerals, called phyllosilicates. They’re really important because they contain water in their structure! And we all know we need water for life. I specifically have been looking at the element sulphur in these clays, which is another essential element for life. Finding these things helps us work out how water and other important elements might have been delivered to Earth after it formed, and eventually giving us the right ingredients for life!