Unusual meteorite may have come from the Kuiper belt

New Scientist : In 2000 an unusual meteorite fell onto icy Tagish Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Its composition was significantly different from that of other meteorites that have fallen to Earth. Previous analyses of the meteorite have suggested it is a D-type asteroid, which is rare in the asteroid belt but much more common around the solar system’s gas giants. Now Bill Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his colleagues have suggested that the Tagish Lake meteorite and other similar rocks that have been seen in the asteroid belt might come from the Kuiper belt. The researchers say the movement of the outer planets early in the formation of the solar system could have launched the asteroids inward. If so, the Tagish Lake meteorite could prove to be a handy point of reference for scientists anticipating the New Horizons spacecraft’s visit to Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 in 2019.