McDonough Meteorite belongs to area between Mars, Jupiter scientists think may be linked to breakup of much larger asteroid about 470M years ago, says researcher
A meteorite that ripped through the sky in June, causing a sonic boom in the US Southeast, is estimated to be 4.56 billion years old, according to researchers who studied the space rock after it fell to Earth, according to a media report on Monday.
Scientists received fragments of the extraterrestrial rock after it fell to Earth this summer to determine their classification and origin.
The University of Georgia received 23 of the 50 grams of the McDonough Meteorite, which was named after the Georgia city where it ripped through a home's roof and ceiling, CNN reported, citing the university.
“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,” Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of geology, said in the news release.
Harris determined the meteorite to be a Low Metal ordinary chondrite — a type of stony meteorite — and thus 20 million years older than Earth, by “using optical and electron microscopy,” the university said.
“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 in the release.
Harris said a scientific paper on the rock will be published to help researchers better understand the potential threats posed by meteorites.
