Twin Earth

We bounced across the baron red landscape in a rather forlorn four by four jeep for about an hour, across a mix of sandy and rocky roads. The closer we came to the crater the more obvious it finally did become, with various poorly constructed buildings left in crumbled pieces along the roadside. My heart did sink a little though when I saw some beautiful Moroccan architecture such as arches and tiled facades now laying in broken and smashed piles. The area was deserted with a heavy military presence so whoever had lived here had long gone or been taken to hospital. It still amazed me that there had been no reports of fatalities.

Eventually we arrived at a makeshift military check point and were quickly ushered through, then the road began to suddenly dip down and become more broken up.

“We are now entering the crater,” Fiona shouted over the road noise.

“I can certainly feel it,” Robert complained, clinging on to the door handle.

Robert had always been more of an office guy than an adventurer and I could tell from experience that he hated being here, even if it was the discovery of the century. Me however, I couldn’t hide my excitement, and, on a few attempts, I had to remind myself not to smile so much.

A few minutes later the road seemed to completely disappear, and we struggled to find a path up to another tent further on in the distance, so Fiona decided to pull over. We all jumped out, but our focus was immediately taken away from the awful journey to the huge slab of shiny rock now glistening ahead of us in the desert sun.

“This is it,” Fiona smiled ushering us towards the vast object.

Suddenly, I realised something obvious.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be much bigger than this?” I remarked. “I’d estimated it was about hundred metres or so. It also seems much flatter.” In fact the object was extremely flat with barely any signs of bumpiness or irregularity. “It looks almost alien like,” I added.

“I thought you were better than that Tom,” Robert quipped. “Let’s not jump to any ridiculous conclusions just yet.”

Laughing Fiona agreed, “I know what you mean, but from what we have gathered so far, it is of normal geological formation. Nothing unusual in that respect. We believe its shape has occurred due to it hitting something and sheering off.”

“That would explain its size,” I agreed. “It must have happened when it hit the anomaly, which would suggest that other fragments are still out there.”

“That is what we believe, and we have indeed discovered some new fragments near to where the object initially went missing, but they are very dim, so we think they are quite small in comparison to this piece.”

“I’m intrigued. Can I take a closer look?” I asked.

“Yes of course. Rachel, Robert, Trevor, will you join the others in the lab tent. I will take Tom over to the object now.”

“Very well,” Robert acknowledged.

I followed Fiona over to the meteorite and gasped at the sheer size of the strange object up close. If I didn’t suspect it was iron based it could easily pass as a huge slab of slate, wedged in the ground as if it had been there for a millennium. It was very long, but only by about forty metres or so and it was incredibly smooth. I watched as Fiona climbed up onto its top face where a few scientists were sat with various instruments.

“Do not worry, it is not hot. There is zero thermal radiation. If anything, it feels quite cold.”

I was surprised to see she was right. I leaned over and felt the shiny surface and it was icy to the touch, but what amazed me more was the complete lack of any crust formation from the atmosphere. It was as if it had skipped that part of the journey altogether.

I stepped up and joined Fiona on the surface and we made our way over to her small team of colleagues who had already been taking various samples. As I squatted down to join them, I pulled out my portable electron microscope and scanned a few of their samples for my own satisfaction and nodded at its composition.

“As I suspected. Iron and mainly nickel and a surprising amount of cobalt, but nothing particularly unusual there, and very little rock, maybe the remnants of some distant planet?” I announced standing up again. “This thing is going to be worth a fortune. Have you noticed any signs of whatever it hit in space?” I asked.

“Nothing, but you are welcome to take a look around,” one of the scientists replied.

“Thanks.”

I left Fiona discussing my results with her colleagues and I wandered around the huge stage. Looking out I was amazed once again at the lack of any significant crater. Other than a long trail behind the object there was only some slight build-up of sand around it, about a mile in diameter and about ten or twenty foot high. Even though the object was much smaller than expected it seemed unbelievable that it hadn’t made more of an impact.

“Lucky for the locals,” I whispered to myself.

Much of the surface seemed very consistent with where the scientists had located themselves, with only minor disturbances in colour and shape so I decided to walk over to the front of the object, the part that had landed first, to take a look underneath.

“Do you see anything unusual Tom?” Fiona asked joining me.

“No,” I paused, “but it’s most intriguing. The surface is incredibly smooth. You would expect more lumps and bumps and sharp crevices like it is underneath here.”

Leaning down I brushed the few grains of sand that had settled near to the front of the object and watched as they dance about in the wind.

“Do you have that weather report yet?” I asked standing back up.

“Yes, I do. The weather reports fine weather, no discernible wind. These gusts we are experiencing seem to be very localised, but according to this report the air pressure is relatively stable. Do you think it is possible the meteor heated up this area upon landing somehow, causing friction with the cooler desert air?”

“Unlikely. You said there was zero thermal radiation. The thing is cold. If anything, it should have cooled the impact area. If there is no difference in air pressure then there should be very little wind,” I replied looking around.

“So, what are causing these frustrating gusts?” Fiona replied, brushing her hair aside once again.

Lost in thought I jumped down off the object and again played with the sand around the object.

“Do you see this?” I asked Fiona, motioning her to join me. “This sand, when I touch it, it seems to dance before it settles back down, like it’s caught in tiny tornadoes, but do you notice something. The sand settles back into the exact same position.”

“So it does,” Fiona whispered cupping the sand and copying what I had just done. “Why would it do that?”

“But you see how weak it is? If I brush it hard enough it just falls to the ground. There is no wind to catch it. If the weather even had a slight breeze we would see it move direction.”

“So, do you think there is some kind of attraction to the object?”

“I’m wondering if there is a difference in air pressure surrounding the asteroid, causing tiny pockets of wind.”

“Is that even possible?” Fiona inquired bemused by my hypothesis. “What would even cause that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I have got to take some samples back to the lab tent, so can I leave you?”

“Sure. I’m going to take some samples myself and join you shortly,” I replied.

“Very well. Just make sure you do not take too long as we have to be out of here in less than an hour.”

Nodding, I watched Fiona re-join her colleagues and I looked around the landscape once again. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the frustrating gusts of sandy wind that had been annoying Fiona all morning seemed to be causing the sand to act in a similar way to that of the small grains I had previously played with, but on a much less noticeable scale. If I hadn’t of observed the way the grains of sand had danced off my hand, I probably wouldn’t have noticed this anomaly at all, but the unusual winds were beginning to die down so whatever was causing it seemed to be dissipating.

I crouched down and dug around the front of the meteorite with my hands and tried to think about what could be causing these dancing sand particles to act this way, frantically re-calling everything I had learned about weather systems. As I dug deeper, the tornado like motions seemed stronger, tighter somehow than they did in the surrounding desert and I noticed it was harder to disturb their tendency to sit back into the same position.

“If differences in air pressure cause wind then what is causing these minute pockets of varying air pressures around the object?” I asked myself, “but with zero changes in temperature.”

“Gravitational fluctuations?” Rachel replied causing me to jump. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she laughed kneeling down and joining me. “Fiona said you’d found something. Robert is currently arguing with Trevor about who can keep what and where and I couldn’t face listening to them any longer, so I thought I’d come over.”

“No, I’m glad you did. Look at this.”

I showed Rachel what I had found and thought about what she had just suggested.

“Do you think there could be tiny gravitational differences around this meteorite, but how is that even possible? It would mean the mass of this thing must be incredibly huge,” I remarked.

“Fiona said it was mainly iron and nickel?”

“Exactly. Not nearly enough to cause its own noticeable gravitational pull.”

“It’s also fluctuating,” Rachel added.

“And dissipating, so whatever is causing it is fading.”

“Yeah I noticed the wind had died down. I think that pleased Fiona.”

“I’m going to try and capture a sample near to here and take it back with us. Hopefully we can capture whatever is causing this.”

“Well, Fiona says we need to hurry as the local government are chomping at the bit to get started. It frustrates me no end. It’s just money to them.”

Ignoring her complaints, I quickly extracted some tubular samples, along with some of the sand I had just played with and placed them as softly as I could into my deionised water container and sealed it, creating a small vacuum as it closed.

“This will have to do. It’s crude, but hopefully we can capture a little of whatever is happening in this object and analyse it back at the lab.”

I followed Rachel back to the tent and was disappointed to see everyone had already packed up and loading the jeep ready to leave, but at least Robert and Trevor had seemingly stopped arguing as Robert was now sat with his arms folded waiting in the car with a very sour look on his face. I could tell he had lost whatever argument he had just had because he became like a child when he couldn’t get his own way. That couldn’t have been truer when he had sent me packing from my position at the UKSA a few months ago. It was as if he had enjoyed seeing me squirm and beg for my job, like he had finally got one over on me somehow. Not that I had ever given him reason to compete with me. I think it was just that he knew, like we all did, that he wasn’t as smart as everyone else in the organisation because he wasn’t an actual scientist. I had spent many hours trying to fuel his ego by downplaying my achievements and up-playing his and it was exhausting. I detested the man.

“You got what you need?” Rachel asked.

“I think so. I feel rushed though.”

“Don’t we all,” Fiona replied.

“We heading back home?” I asked Rachel as I climbed in the car.

“Yes. Your father is joining us later today with some of his team, but Trevor has negotiated extra time at the site and I don’t think Robert is very happy about it.”

“When is he ever,” I muttered.

“You don’t get on?”

“Let’s just say we’ve had our differences.”

I could tell Rachel was intrigued by my mysterious relationship with the UK space agency, but now wasn’t the time to go into details. I was keen to get studying what I had found.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

As Fiona climbed in and started up the engine, we followed the small convoy of scientists out of the secured area and away from the meteorite. A part of me was frustrated at not having more time to study the object in its complete form, and it annoyed me too that NASA always got priority somehow, but I doubted how much more any of us would find anyway. Even with the unusual sand formations I felt I was clutching at straws to find anything that would link it to its collision with the anomaly.