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.
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.