A meteorite, the Tenham Meteorite, is clarifying (and, in part confirming) our understanding of a specific mineral and related processes deep within the earth's mantle and even the early solar system.
... magnesium silicate can form what is called a perovskite structure, which can be imagined as an array of double pyramids that are joined at their corners. The centers of each pyramid are made of silicon, the apexes and corners are made of oxygen, and magnesium and iron reside in the spaces between each double pyramid.
But scientists had not discovered a naturally occurring version of this mineral until now — the mineral would not survive the long journey from the lower mantle to Earth's surface because it would readily transform into lower-density minerals.
The meteorite, needless to say, contains a highly similar material not fabricated in a laboratory, "bridgmanite." Analysis of bridgmanite is informing our understanding of this inner mantle mineral. for starts:
The researchers found that bridgmanite was higher in iron and sodium than they had expected based on synthetic samples.
Full article
here