It is possible that passage of the shock wave also induced the cosmic cloud to begin the condensation that gave birth to the solar system. This chemically unusual material did not come out of our own Sun. It may have come from another nearby star, perhaps flung out in a violent supernova explosion to enrich the cloud of gas and dust where the solar system later formed. The discovery also suggests that shock waves from the supernova passed through the cloud, triggering the condensation that eventually produced the Sun and the planets. Thus, through laboratory analyses of the meteorites, we can now see back in time beyond the formation of the solar system itself.
Meteorites also tell much about what the asteroids are like.
Using ground-based telescopes and spectrometers, we are able to make crude chemical analyses of individual asteroids by analyzing the light that they reflect. Comparing these data with the results of meteorite studies, we have determined that the asteroids can be divided into families that are similar to the different groups of meteorites, although we have not yet been able to link a meteorite group uniquely to a specific asteroid. The origin of asteroids has also been illuminated by meteorites. The asteroids were once thought to be the remnants of an exploded planet. We now know enough about asteroids to ask some exciting questions.