WASHINGTON — A meteorite found in a Swedish limestone quarry may be the first of its kind — the remnant of an object long-destroyed, fragments of which once rained down on Earth but no longer exist in the heavens.

The 470-million-year-old space rock, dubbed Österplana 65, was found in the midst of more than 100 L type chondrites, the most common type of meteorite, scientists reported in Nature Communications. Many of these objects are thought to have formed 470 million years ago when their large mother object collided with a bruiser of an asteroid. The asteroid that broke the object apart to such great effect — sending a huge glut of L chondrites down onto Earth — has remained elusive until now. Österplana 65 is thought to be the first chunk of it ever found.

‘‘For a long time we called the meteorite the ‘Mysterious Object’ because we could not understand what it was,’’ lead author Birger Schmitz of Lund University told Space.com. The object, he said, is ‘‘of a type that we do not know of from today’s world.’’

That suggests the science world has much to learn about the variety of meteorites that pummeled Earth during important moments in evolutionary history.

Washington Post