1" Pica Glass Cometary Airburst Melt-Glass Atacama Desert Chile Meteorite Display
Location: Atacama Desert Chile
Weight: 1.3 Ounces (Display)
Pic Glass 4.6 Grams
Dimensions: 3.3 Inches Long, 2.3 Inches Wide, 1 Inch Thick (Display)
Pica Glass: 1 Inch Long, 0.7 Inches Wide, 0.7 Inches Thick
Comes with a Free Display Case.
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
Originally discovered in 2012, Pica glass is an impact glass/tektite that is found only along a 47-mile stretch of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, near the town of Pica. Upon discovery, it was thought to be an impact glass, current literature suggests that comet explosions near the atmosphere are responsible for this alluring, swirling green-grey glass found in Late Pleistocene sediments near the town of Pica. Extraterrestrial material discovered within the glass coincides with cometary explosions in the near atmosphere within the last 12,000 to 14,000 years. This implies that the comet shower responsible for this tektite was more than likely observed by early hunter-gatherer groups of humans.
In a paper published in 2021, Peter Schultz (Brown University), along with his American and Chilean colleagues, argued that the hypothesis is in fact the correct one: Pica glass formed during a fiery comet impact. They analyzed the rocky foam and discovered extraterrestrial dust trapped inside that strongly resembled particles collected from Comet 81P/Wild during NASA's Stardust mission and also found in carbon-rich meteorites called CI chondrites . They even turned up a nickel-rich mineral and other substances commonly found in meteorites. Every single one of the 70 samples, sliced thin and analyzed under a powerful microscope, contained exotic particles unrelated to the local rocks