Two minerals never before seen on Earth could offer researchers possible clues about how the space rocks are formed. The minerals were discovered in a gigantic meteorite weighing 16.5 tons. The El Ali meteorite in Somalia was discovered in 2020 and is the ninth-largest meteorite ever discovered, the University of Alberta said in a news release. "Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before," Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection and professor in Earth and atmospheric sciences, said in a statement. "That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science." #science #meteorite