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- Carbonaceous chondrite on Wikipedia
Carbonaceous chondrite
Details
A carbonaceous chondrite is among the most chemically primitive kinds of meteorite. NASA studies of carbon-rich meteorites have identified amino acids, sugars, and other organics in this broader family, making it one of our best natural archives of prebiotic chemistry in asteroids.
A carbonaceous chondrite is not just a rock from space. It is one of the best natural archives of the early Solar System that scientists can hold in their hands. These meteorites are among the most chemically primitive known, which means they preserve material that has not been erased by extensive melting, differentiation, or high-temperature reworking. In them, old chemistry remains readable.
What makes carbonaceous chondrites especially important is the richness of what they can contain: carbon-bearing compounds, water-related minerals, and in some cases a remarkable range of chemically informative inclusions and organics. That does not make them magical or biologically alive, but it does make them unusually valuable. They preserve part of the chemical backdrop from which planets, asteroids, and potentially prebiotic environments emerged.
That is why a carbonaceous chondrite matters on this scale. It turns a hand-sized specimen into a record of deep planetary prehistory. Instead of showing us only what a meteorite is made of now, it can show us something about what the young Solar System was chemically like before worlds such as Earth fully took shape.
2.23cm
Key facts
- Category
- Meteoritic material
- Object class
- Carbonaceous chondrite
- Scale fact
- 6 cmspecimen extent
- Composition
- Hydrated silicates, carbon-rich compounds, metal
Scale context
Where Carbonaceous chondrite sits on the full axis
By size on the journey, Carbonaceous chondrite sits between Chondrule and Ordinary chondrite. The band below uses nearby Meteoritic material objects for context.
Shared physical scale
1.76m
Together, these objects make the size change around Carbonaceous chondrite easy to compare at a glance.
Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.
About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.