Extremely exciting news for Chicagoans and local science lovers! A new specimen arrived at the Field Museum this week, and scientists say it holds clues on how life began.
The extremely rare cosmic mudball is four pounds, smells like Brussels sprouts, and is very fragile. Scientists say it's a solar system time capsule that will help unlock the greatest mysteries of our universe. The mudball fell to Earth in Costa Rica last spring; it's very unusual for such a sizeable piece to survive reentry to Earth.
Scientists believe meteorites like this mudball delivered the building blocks of life to Earth. Now it will be used to help us determine what is the solar system made of, how it formed, and what was there before the solar system.
All that information from a mudball!