Meteorite that crashed through roof of home in Georgia dated to beginning of solar system
A meteorite that crashed through the roof of a home in Georgia in June 2025 has now been dated to have formed 4.56 billion years ago, to a time when the solar system was just beginning to form.
[The University of Georgia] received 23 grams of the 50 recovered from the piece that penetrated the house. Using optical and electron microscopy to analyze the fragments, Harris says he believes the meteorite to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite. That classification means he expects the meteorite to have formed 4.56 billion years ago in the presence of oxygen — older than the Earth itself.
“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 said. “But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth’s orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.”
There has been a lot of unjustified hype in the mainstream press about this story, mostly about the age of the meteorite. The fact is that this age for a meteorite is simply not a surprise, that almost all chondrite meteorites found are of comparable age, coming from the beginnings of the solar system.
The most unusual part of the story is that the impact occurred through a person’s house. Such events are exceedingly rare. That it happened however was actually fortuitous, in that, first, no one was hurt, and second, it allowed the meteorite to be quickly recovered and analyzed.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A meteorite that crashed through the roof of a home in Georgia in June 2025 has now been dated to have formed 4.56 billion years ago, to a time when the solar system was just beginning to form.
[The University of Georgia] received 23 grams of the 50 recovered from the piece that penetrated the house. Using optical and electron microscopy to analyze the fragments, Harris says he believes the meteorite to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite. That classification means he expects the meteorite to have formed 4.56 billion years ago in the presence of oxygen — older than the Earth itself.
“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 said. “But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth’s orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.”
There has been a lot of unjustified hype in the mainstream press about this story, mostly about the age of the meteorite. The fact is that this age for a meteorite is simply not a surprise, that almost all chondrite meteorites found are of comparable age, coming from the beginnings of the solar system.
The most unusual part of the story is that the impact occurred through a person’s house. Such events are exceedingly rare. That it happened however was actually fortuitous, in that, first, no one was hurt, and second, it allowed the meteorite to be quickly recovered and analyzed.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
On display at the Chicago Field Museum, the “Benld Meteorite,” a 3.9 lb. specimen that fell on September 29, 1938.
Went through the roof of Edward McCain’s garage, in Benld, Illinois. — “Tore through the roof, seat, and floor of McCain’s Pontiac’s and rebounded off the muffler before bouncing back up into the springs of the seat.”
https://www.astronomy.com/science/the-benld-meteorite-an-ordinary-space-rock-that-slammed-into-a-car/
I had occasion to look into the Benld meteorite. The impact was heard, but the orientation of the garage prevented locating the rock, until later that day. Presumably, when the owner went to use the car.
There have been several meteorite home invasions. One at a medical clinic in Virginia ” . . . sounded like bookcases crashing down.”, and another in British Columbia where a rock landed in a bed vacated moments earlier. The Benld stone is at least the second to hit a car.
Blair–
Good stuff.
November 30, 1954, Sylacauga, Alabama.
The 5.54 kg Sylacauga Meteorite aka “Hodges Meteorite,” “… crashed through the roof of a farmhouse, bounced off a large wooden console radio, and hit 34-year-old Ann E. Hodges (1923-1972) while she napped on a couch.”
After an ownership dispute with her landlord, Miss Hodges acquired the meteorite and subsequently donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History at Tuscaloosa, where it is on permanent display.
https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/hodges-meteorite-strike-sylacauga-aerolite/
“I’ve Got a Secret”
Ann Hodges, Alabama Woman Struck by Meteorite
https://youtu.be/JVyi1w4ULug
4:18
Peekskill hit a car. There was a song about stars falling on Alabama. Wetumpka Alabama has a meteor crater larger than Arizona’s.
Some think a meteor from Encke’s comet started the Chicago fire.
Huh. There doesn’t seem to be an ICD-10 code for “injured by meteor” (or meteroite).
E845.0 – Accident involving spacecraft injuring occupant of spacecraft
E928.0 – Prolonged stay in weightless environment
are there, but no “spacecraft crashing my on head”
Fortuitous or not, I’d prefer it didn’t happen to me (or my house or car).
Mark Sizer–
Hilarious! Almost spewed my hot beverage all over my keyboard!
On the upside, by all reports this shook her up quite a bit, so we can bill on F40.298, “other-specified phobia,” if we specify “meteorophobia.”