{"id":333293,"date":"2025-08-10T14:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333293\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T14:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T14:07:12","slug":"meteorite-that-hit-home-is-older-than-earth-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333293\/","title":{"rendered":"Meteorite that hit home is older than Earth, scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch: Large fireball seen shooting across sky over Southeastern US<\/p>\n

A meteorite that crashed into a home in the US is older than planet Earth, scientists have said. <\/p>\n

The object flew through the skies in broad daylight before exploding across the state of Georgia on 26 June, Nasa confirmed. <\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Georgia examined a fragment of the rock that pierced the roof of a home in the city of McDonough. <\/p>\n

They found that, based on the type of meteorite, it is expected to have formed 4.56 billion years ago, making it roughly 20 million years older than Earth.<\/p>\n

Residents in Georgia and nearby states reported hundreds of sightings and a loud booming noise when the fireball tore through the skies. <\/p>\n

The rock quickly diminished in size and speed, but still travelled at least 1 km per second, going through a man’s roof in Henry County.<\/p>\n

Multiple fragments that struck the building were handed over to scientists, who analysed their origins.<\/p>\n

“This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,” Scott Harris, a geologist at the University of Georgia, said. <\/p>\n

Using optical and electron microscopy, Harris and his team determined the rock was a chondrite – the most abundant type of stony meteorite, according to Nasa <\/a>– which meant that it was approximately 4.56 billion years old.<\/p>\n

The home’s resident said he is still finding pieces of space dust around his home from the hit.<\/p>\n

The object, which has been named the McDonough meteorite, is the 27th to have been recovered from Georgia.<\/p>\n

“This is something that used to be expected once every few decades and not multiple times within 20 years,” Harris said.<\/p>\n

“Modern technology, in addition to an attentive public, is going to help us recover more and more meteorites.”<\/p>\n

Harris is hoping to publish his findings on the composition and speed of the asteroid, which will help to understand the threat of further asteroids.<\/p>\n

“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. If we can guard against that, we want to,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch: Large fireball seen shooting across sky over Southeastern US A meteorite that crashed into a home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-333293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115004862898482263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}