On June 26, a space object seen streaking over the southeastern United States made its way to Earth, with fragments tearing through the roof of a home near Atlanta, Georgia.
Now, samples of mysterious space rock have been analyzed by researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA), who say the fragments represent an ancient piece of cosmic history.
Following the June incident, meteorite fragments that crashed into the Georgia home were retrieved and analyzed by UGA planetary geologist Scott Harris, an expert in meteorite impacts, who says the object traveled a long distance—and for a very long time—before its close encounter with a residential property in Henry County.
“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,” Harris said in a statement.
An Extraterrestrial Visitor Moving at the Speed of Sound
According to one assessment, the likelihood of a residential property being struck by a meteorite is extremely low—an estimated thirty parts in a billion. Still, it has happened before in the past, and as the June incident shows, it is certainly likely to continue happening, albeit rarely.
Fortunately, these fragments were too small to cause any significant damage. However, before it broke into smaller pieces that were chiseled down to size during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, the original space rock would have been a bit larger—roughly the size of a large grape—and moving at the speed of sound in its descent.
“When they encounter Earth, our atmosphere is very good at slowing them down,” Harris said, although noting that the object’s speed at its fastest descent would have been comparable to “running 10 football fields in one second.”
The object’s collision with the residence it struck reportedly penetrated the homeowner’s roof, generating a sound that could easily have been mistaken for a close-range gunshot.
Harris explains that behind this “gunshot” sound were a combination of factors—the object’s initial impact with the structure, a small sonic boom as it breached the sound barrier, and also the sound of the object impacting the floor after passing through the roof, all of which would have seemingly occurred instantaneously.
An Impact that Left a Mark… Literally
Even after passing through layers of the structure’s roof and HVAC system, it still managed to leave a mark as it entered the main living space.
“There was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments,” Harris said, and tiny bits of dust resulting from the impact are still reportedly being found around the resident’s living room.
The object, which has been dubbed the McDonough Meteorite, was subsequently analyzed using optical and electron microscopy, revealing it to be a relatively common chondrite meteorite.
Estimated to be around 4.56 billion years old, the tiny meteorite fragments are older than the Earth, which has now become their home after traveling through space for eons.
Harris said that the object’s origins likely stem from the main asteroid belt, located between Jupiter and Mars, which formed as a result of the breakup of a larger asteroid around 470 million years ago.
“In that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits,” Harris said, “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.”
The McDonough Meteorite
Officially recognized as the 27th meteorite ever found in the U.S. state of Georgia, the McDonough Meteorite is also only the sixth to have been observed falling prior to its recovery.
Harris notes that such discoveries used to be considered exceedingly rare—likely to occur only once in a few decades—but they are now observed more frequently with the help of advanced detection capabilities and a range of other factors that include more potential observers, camera systems capable of recording such events, and a greater number of homes to serve as unwitting catcher’s mitts for these cosmic collisions.
“Modern technology, in addition to an attentive public, is going to help us recover more and more meteorites,” Harris added, although warning that in the future there could be dangerous potential associated with such impact events.
“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,” Harris said.
“If we can guard against that, we want to,” he added.
Harris said that he and his colleagues will continue to analyze the fragments, and that a paper describing its composition and speed prior to impact will be written and published in the coming months.
For the time being, those wishing to see fragments of the McDonough Meteorite can visit the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, where portions of the space rock will be on display before the public.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.