4.56 Billion-Year-Old McDonough Meteorite Identified as Ancient Asteroid Fragment, Study Reveals
A meteorite, identified as the McDonough Meteorite, has been determined by researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) to be approximately 4.56 billion years old. The extraterrestrial rock made a dramatic entrance through Earth’s atmosphere in June, causing a sonic boom that shook the Southeast region.
Following its impact, fragments of the meteorite were collected and analyzed by scientists, including UGA researchers, to ascertain their origin and classification. The University of Georgia received 23 grams of the meteorite, which had crashed through the roof and ceiling of a home in McDonough, Georgia.
Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ department of geology, identified the meteorite as a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite – a type of stony meteorite. Using optical and electron microscopy, he discovered that it was 20 million years older than Earth.
Harris explained that the meteorite originated from a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which were believed to have broken off from a much larger asteroid around 470 million years ago. Some pieces of this asteroid eventually entered Earth-crossing orbits, and over time, their paths intersected with Earth’s orbit, resulting in the meteorite’s arrival.
UGA is collaborating with researchers at Arizona State University to submit the McDonough Meteorite’s name and findings to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. Harris also plans to publish a scientific paper on the rock, aiming to shed more light on potential threats posed by meteorites.
Harris emphasized the importance of understanding these cosmic events, as they pose a potential risk of creating catastrophic situations in the future. “One day there will be an opportunity, and we never know when it’s going to be, for something large to hit and create a catastrophic situation,” he said. “If we can guard against that, we want to.”
The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on June 26, during the ongoing Bootids meteor shower. The resident of Henry County, Georgia, who reported a rock falling through their ceiling around the same time, later identified this object as the McDonough Meteorite.
The McDonough Meteorite is being stored at UGA for further analysis. Other pieces of it that fell on June 26 will be publicly displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.