A Tanzanian renowned physicist cum astronomer, Dr Noorali Jiwaji has challenged the government to work out modalities for scientific study of a rare type of meteorite which scientists say landed in Tanzania in 1938.

Dr Noorali Jiwaji who is a Lecturer in Physics and Head of Department of ICT in the Faculty of Science Technology and Environmental Studies at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) has said Tanzania has competent chemists, biochemists and geologists to undertake the research.

He was responding to questions from this reporter in an exclusive interview on the a rare type of meteorite, labeled Ivuna meteorite, which scientists say could hold clues to the birth of our solar system.

''The meteorite has a knowledge value. We could understand the process by which the solar system was formed, including the initiation of life.

It has been found to contain some amino acids, the building blocks from which living things are made,'' he said.

He said the fact that Ivuna meteorite was found in the 1938 and was well preserved to prevent deterioration for the past two or three decades, our own samples also need to be preserved to enable future scientific research.

Dr Jiwaji also called for Tanzania to use astronomy as a tourist attraction saying that Tanzania has unique skyline.

''We are at the equator where you can see almost all the stars, and we have no light pollution.

We have dark skies where numerous stars are vividly seen unlike in many developed countries where the skies are extremely polluted by the bright lights that leaks upward into space,'' he stressed adding, ''we could train star tour guides to cater for the astronomy tourism.''

According to the expert, meteorites are bodies that fall on earth from space. They originate from the asteroid belt between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter.

There are millions of pieces around the sun in the area and that due to gravitational pull of the planets, once in a while are attracted towards the earth.

He said 200 tons of material falls on to the earth each day from space, most of it in the form of small particles or dust.

Most of this material burns up when heated by friction with the thick atmosphere that surrounds us. Shooting stars that we see during the night are best example of such burning bodies.

Large bodies however do not burn up completely and fall to earth as meteorites.

The Mbozi meteorite near Mbeya in Southern Tanzania is a huge piece of mainly iron weighing 16 tonnes is among the top ten largest meteorites to fall on earth.

The largest is the Hoba meteorite in Namibia weighing nearly 70 tonnes.

The Ivuna meteorite is a typical example of meteorites originating in the primordial material from the outer fringes of our solar system, and from which the sun and the solar system have formed.

The material of the sun is composed of hydrogen, helium and interstellar (between stars) dust.

When the primordial material from the edge of our solar system nears earth it is sometimes seen as comets with long tails formed by its dust pushed away by sunlight.

The Ivuna meteorite is one such piece that was trapped by the earth's pull and fell near Mbeya in 1938 weighing about one kilo.

According to sources most Ivuna samples are held in private collections and by Tanzanian government. Its chemical make-up, which matches that of the sun, is extremely rare- just nine of the 35,000 known meteorites or 0.03 percent have this solar composition.

A meteorite curator at the Natural History Museum in London told the media that these types of meteorite are very susceptible to alteration on Earth. Changes in humidity for example could change their composition.

In 2009 the world will celebrate the International Year of Astronomy to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of a telescope to study the night sky.

Astronomers around the world will be inviting people to look up in wonder at the night sky, and to seek out answers to some of life's biggest questions about our universe and its origins.

The theme of the years is ''The Universe -Yours to discover.''

Dr Caroline Smith unveils the Ivuna meteorite

A rare type of meteorite that could hold clues to the birth of our Solar System has been bought by London's Natural History Museum.

The Ivuna meteorite, obtained from a US private collection, has the same chemical make-up from which the Solar System formed 4.5 billion years ago. It landed in Tanzania in 1938 as one 705g stone, since split into samples.

Pieces from the UK sample, the largest in any public collection in the world, will be removed for study.

Most Ivuna samples are held in private collections, or by the Tanzanian government. It's a particularly important specimen to science because it's been so well preserved.

Dr Caroline Smith, meteorite curator at the Natural History Museum (NHM), told BBC News: ''These types of meteorite are very susceptible to alteration on Earth. Changes in humidity, for example, can change their composition.

''But this meteorite is important as it fell relatively recently and has been kept under nitrogen in a sealed environment for the last two or three decades.

''It's a particularly important specimen to science because it's been so well preserved. We're all incredibly excited about it because it's so pristine.''

Monica Grady, professor of planetary sciences at the Open University in Milton Keynes, commented: "This is fantastic for the UK's meteorite experts.

This material represents the crumbs from the foundation of the Solar System. It's an unbelievable opportunity to study it in close-up. The museum has been very bold in acquiring it.''

One question that Ivuna could help answer is how the chemical building blocks for life came to Earth. Important components of so-called pre-genetic material, the amino acids b-alanine and glycine, were found in Ivuna in a 2001 study.

Scientists at Imperial College London have confirmed that a meteorite called Murchison contained extra-terrestrial molecules that were the precursors to DNA and RNA.

In addition to being used for research, Ivuna will be a star specimen in a new meteorites gallery, which the NHM is planning for the near future.

''The plan is to take the meteorite to Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where we'll have a 20g piece taken off and that will be sub-divided into two 10g pieces,'' Dr Smith explained.

''One piece will be put to one side. The other will be divided into 200mg allocations - less than the size of your fingernail - for researchers to study."