Aug 11, 2025 06:09 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 11, 2025 06:21 PM by C C.)
Atlanta home struck by meteorite older than Earth, study finds
https://www.sciencealert.com/atlanta-hom...tudy-finds
EXCERPTS: A piece of space rock that crashed into a home in Atlanta, Georgia, had been zooming around in space for longer than Earth has existed, a recent analysis has found. The newly named McDonough Meteorite that punched through Earth's atmosphere on 26 June 2025 formed around 4.56 billion years ago, according to planetary geologist Scott Harris of the University of Georgia.
Our home planet, for context, is thought to be around 4.5 billion years old – making the tiny fragments of rock that survived the impact at least a few hundred million years older.
[...] "It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago," Harris says... (MORE - missing details)
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Out of this world research: UGA analyzes and names new meteorite
https://news.uga.edu/uga-names-new-meteorite
INTRO: A mysterious extraterrestrial visitor now has a permanent home and identity, thanks to University of Georgia researchers. The newly named McDonough Meteorite crash-landed in Atlanta on June 26 after catching eyes across the Southeast as the fireball streaked through the daytime sky.
Multiple fragments, which tore through a residential roof in Henry County, were turned over to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert to determine its origin and classification. And it turns out these new chunks are actually quite old.
“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,” said Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of geology.
Although the pieces that fell eventually diminished in size, Harris says it’s useful to consider how the planet might handle a much larger inbound space rock.
Before the meteor broke into analyzable fragments, researchers clocked the bolide (another way to say fireball or bright meteor) entering the atmosphere at cosmic velocity. That’s a massive rock hurtling toward McDonough faster than the speed of sound.
By the time a bolide gets closer to Earth’s surface, it does diminish in speed and size. But a fast traveling rock the size of a cherry tomato is nothing to sneeze at.
“When they encounter Earth, our atmosphere is very good at slowing them down,” Harris said. “But you’re talking about something that is double the size of a 50-caliber shell, going at least 1 kilometer per second. That’s like running 10 football fields in one second.”
The meteorite still had enough impact to go through a man’s roof and his HVAC duct, leave a solid dent in his floor and make a sound and vibration equivalent to a close-range gunshot.
“I suspect that he heard three simultaneous things. One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment,” Harris said. “There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.”
The resident told Harris he’s still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision... (MORE - details)
https://youtu.be/gINf7d-jZC4
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gINf7d-jZC4
https://www.sciencealert.com/atlanta-hom...tudy-finds
EXCERPTS: A piece of space rock that crashed into a home in Atlanta, Georgia, had been zooming around in space for longer than Earth has existed, a recent analysis has found. The newly named McDonough Meteorite that punched through Earth's atmosphere on 26 June 2025 formed around 4.56 billion years ago, according to planetary geologist Scott Harris of the University of Georgia.
Our home planet, for context, is thought to be around 4.5 billion years old – making the tiny fragments of rock that survived the impact at least a few hundred million years older.
[...] "It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago," Harris says... (MORE - missing details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Out of this world research: UGA analyzes and names new meteorite
https://news.uga.edu/uga-names-new-meteorite
INTRO: A mysterious extraterrestrial visitor now has a permanent home and identity, thanks to University of Georgia researchers. The newly named McDonough Meteorite crash-landed in Atlanta on June 26 after catching eyes across the Southeast as the fireball streaked through the daytime sky.
Multiple fragments, which tore through a residential roof in Henry County, were turned over to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert to determine its origin and classification. And it turns out these new chunks are actually quite old.
“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,” said Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of geology.
Although the pieces that fell eventually diminished in size, Harris says it’s useful to consider how the planet might handle a much larger inbound space rock.
Before the meteor broke into analyzable fragments, researchers clocked the bolide (another way to say fireball or bright meteor) entering the atmosphere at cosmic velocity. That’s a massive rock hurtling toward McDonough faster than the speed of sound.
By the time a bolide gets closer to Earth’s surface, it does diminish in speed and size. But a fast traveling rock the size of a cherry tomato is nothing to sneeze at.
“When they encounter Earth, our atmosphere is very good at slowing them down,” Harris said. “But you’re talking about something that is double the size of a 50-caliber shell, going at least 1 kilometer per second. That’s like running 10 football fields in one second.”
The meteorite still had enough impact to go through a man’s roof and his HVAC duct, leave a solid dent in his floor and make a sound and vibration equivalent to a close-range gunshot.
“I suspect that he heard three simultaneous things. One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment,” Harris said. “There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.”
The resident told Harris he’s still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision... (MORE - details)
https://youtu.be/gINf7d-jZC4