Several fragments were recovered and are now being studied in different labs. Unlike rock on Earth, the Tagish Lake meteorite will not have experienced substantial heating sometime in its history. Dr Russell is interested in tiny grains which should reveal new information about the material that came together to form the Sun and planets. I want to look for grains that I know are very old in this meteorite. Because it is very volatile-rich, the chances are that during its whole life time the meteorite has never been heated up very much and that means all this primordial stuff should be very well preserved.
Carbonaceous chondrites contain tiny jewels - presolar diamonds and sapphires.
These would have been made around the stars that were the ancestors of our Sun, Dr Russell said. These jewels can tell scientists about the processes that occur inside stars.