A rare meteorite that could reveal the secrets of the birth of
the solar system jetted in to the Natural History Museum's
collections today. British Airways gave the satsuma-sized rock,
called Ivuna, star treatment during its transfer from a private
collection in the USA. The Ivuna meteorite is an extremely rare
specimen. 'Ivuna is a real-life time capsule that means we can
look at the very first steps of how our solar system formed,'
said Dr Caroline Smith, meteorite curator at the Museum. 'We
hold one of the most comprehensive meteorite collections in the
world, yet Ivuna has been a missing piece in the jigsaw.' Ivuna
is an extremely rare kind of meteorite. Its chemical make-up
matches that of the sun, and it is considered to represent the
raw materials from which the solar system formed. Only 9 out of
the approximate 35,000 meteorites (0.03%) known to science have
this solar composition. Ivuna is arguably the best example and
is in optimum condition having been kept in a nitrogen
atmosphere for the past 25