A meteorite that fell in Britain last year contains key information about how oceans and life formed on Earth. Analysis of the space rock, which fell on a driveway near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, found that it contained 11 percent water and 2 percent carbon.

Experts said the asteroids played a key role in delivering the ingredients needed to launch oceans and life on the early Earth, PA Media reported.

Dr. Luke Daly, professor of planetary earth sciences at the University of Glasgow and author of the paper, said that analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite provides insight into how water, the source of life, appeared on Earth. Researchers will continue to work on this specimen for years to come, revealing new secrets about the origin of our solar system.

The Winchcombe meteorite belongs to a rare class of rocks known as carbonaceous chondrites. Carbonaceous chondrites make up about 3% of all meteorites collected on Earth, and are thought to contain unaltered chemicals from the formation of the solar system more than four billion years ago.

Dr. Ashley King of the Natural History Museum noted that the analysis offers scientists a tantalizing look back in time to the original composition of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

Analysis of the meteorite sample revealed extraterrestrial water, which the researchers say is trapped in minerals formed during chemical reactions between liquids and rocks on the parent asteroid at the earliest stages of the solar system.

Chemical analysis showed that this water was very similar in composition to water on Earth. The samples were also found to contain amino acids, molecules that are one of the main components for the origin of life.

The researchers said that the rapid extraction of the meteorite allowed experts to analyze its composition in its pristine form.