CD Designs Blog

Reach for your phasers, galactic concrete cowboys! the human race has recently been witness to a minor invasion of concrete from outer space – a meteorite has been found to contain one of the main components of concrete. Nothing special, you may think, but this is actually very interesting given that concrete is generally known to be a purely man made material, requiring synthesis from other materials.

The meteorite, code named NWA 1934, was found in Northwest Africa, and the newly-discovered naturally occurring material has been given the name “Krotite”. It is named after Alexander N. Krot, a famous cosmochemist from the University of Hawaii. The actual scientific name is calcium aluminium oxide, a common part of the concrete typically used in refractory processes, which requires a combination of low pressure and very high temperature (1500 degrees celsius) to create.

This is actually the first time ever that a chemical previously believed to be only available from a man made source has been found to exist in a meteorite over 4.5 billion years old. And there is a wider scientific significance too: this finding is the first solid evidence we have found of the high temperature and low pressure that is thought to have existed during the refractory phase of solar nebulae allegedly occurring around 4.5 billion years ago.

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