Meteorite that fell on a house is older than Earth

On June 26, people in the southeastern US were astonished to see a fireball streaking across the sky. Pieces of the meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in McDonough, Henry County, just south of Atlanta, creating a golf-ball-sized hole in the ceiling and a dent in the floor.

Scott Harris, a researcher in the Department of Geology at the University of Georgia's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is examining the fragments and believes the meteorite formed 4.56 billion years ago. Earth is thought to be 4.543 billion years old.

Harris stated in a university press release, "This meteorite that entered the atmosphere and reached the ground in McDonough has a long history. To fully understand it, we need to examine what the rock is and determine which asteroid group it belongs to."

Analyzing the fragments using optical and electron microscopy, Harris said he believes the meteorite is a low-metal ordinary chondrite. Harris added, "It belongs to an asteroid group located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can link to the breakup of a much larger asteroid approximately 470 million years ago."

The sound and vibration caused by the meteor were equivalent to a nearby gunshot. The homeowner told Harris they were still finding particles of space dust from the collision in their living room. The meteorite, named McDonough, is the 27th meteorite recovered in Georgia's history. Harris said, "This used to be expected to happen once every few decades, not multiple times in 20 years." Other pieces of the meteorite that fell in the area will be publicly displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville.