Oued Chebeika 002

The Oued Chebeika 002 meteorite is a newly discovered CI1 type carbonaceous chondrite found on 6 June 2024 near the village of Abteh in Morocco. The total weight of the fragments is 418 grams.

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The fragments are black, brittle and irregular, with a surface strewn with whitish grains up to 1 mm in size. Some specimens bear traces of fusion crust. When broken, they reveal a dark interior with finely dispersed iron sulphide grains.

The type specimen, weighing 22.7 grams, is deposited at CEREGE, the European Centre for Research and Education in Geosciences and the Environment in France. Other fragments are deposited at Arizona State University (5g), the University of Washington, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (6g), and the University of New Mexico, Institute of Meteoritics (4g). Material is also held by individual collectors, including Jean Redelsperger, Luc Labenne, Mark Lyon, Ziyao Wang, and Jeremy Bassemon.

The Oued Chebeika 002 meteorite is valuable for scientific research due to its primitive nature and composition, which is thought to be the closest composition to that of the solar nebula. Its analysis provides valuable information about the initial conditions in the solar system.