{"id":136721,"date":"2025-08-11T10:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136721\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T10:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:42:14","slug":"meteorite-that-tore-through-southeastern-us-skies-this-summer-determined-to-be-older-than-earth-itself-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/136721\/","title":{"rendered":"Meteorite that tore through southeastern US skies this summer determined to be older than Earth itself, researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A meteorite that tore through the sky<\/a> in June shaking the Southeast with a sonic boom is now believed to be 4.56 billion years old, according to researchers who studied it following its crash landing.<\/p>\n

Fragments of the extraterrestrial rock were turned over to scientists after they fell to Earth this summer to determine their classification and origin.<\/p>\n

The University of Georgia received 23 of the 50 grams of the McDonough Meteorite, named after the Georgia city where it ripped through the roof and ceiling of a home, according to the university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough,\u201d Scott Harris, a researcher in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences\u2019 department of geology, said in the news release.<\/p>\n

Harris determined the meteorite to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite \u2013 a type of stony meteorite \u2013 and thus 20 million years older than Earth by \u201cusing optical and electron microscopy,\u201d the university said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Harris said in the release. \u201cBut in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth-crossing orbits, and if given long enough, their orbit around the sun and Earth\u2019s orbit around the sun end up being at the same place, at the same moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

UGA is also working with partners at Arizona State University to submit the meteorite\u2019s name and findings to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society, Harris said. Harris also plans to publish a scientific paper about the rock to further understand the potential threats meteorites pose.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day there will be an opportunity, and we never know when it\u2019s going to be, for something large to hit and create a catastrophic situation. If we can guard against that, we want to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A rare daytime fireball<\/p>\n

The American Meteor Society received numerous reports of a fireball over the region on June 26, CNN previously reported<\/a>. The reports came during the Bootids meteor shower, a lower-level celestial event that was ongoing during the last week of June.<\/p>\n

A Henry County, Georgia, resident had reported at the time that a rock \u2013 which would later be identified as the McDonough Meteorite \u2013 fell through their ceiling around the same time the June fireball occurred, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. The object had broken through the roof and ceiling before cracking the flooring inside the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect that he heard three simultaneous things. One was the collision with his roof, one was a tiny cone of a sonic boom and a third was it impacting the floor all in the same moment,\u201d Harris said in the news release. \u201cThere was enough energy when it hit the floor that it pulverized part of the material down to literal dust fragments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The meteorite traveled fast enough at an angle that it was able to pass through a homeowner\u2019s roof, ductwork and ceiling. – Courtesy University of Georgia<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The meteorite dented the Henry County homeowner\u2019s floor. – Courtesy University of Georgia<\/p>\n

The resident told Harris he\u2019s still finding specks of space dust around his living room from the collision, according to t he university. The rock is the 27th meteorite in history recovered in Georgia and the sixth witnessed fall.<\/p>\n

Seeing a daytime fireball is a rare occurrence: Fireballs are easier to view at night, but must be much brighter to be visible during the day, the American Meteor Society says. It\u2019s also \u201cquite rare\u201d for sonic booms to be heard on the ground when a fireball occurs, according to the organization.<\/p>\n

A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a magnitude over -4, which is brighter than Venus, according to the American Meteor Society. June\u2019s fireball reached a magnitude of around -14, the society told CNN, which would have made it brighter than the full moon.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take the McDonough space rock pummeling through roofs for others to spot it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A still from dashcam video shows a big flash of light coming down from the sky in Lexington County, South Carolina, on June 26. – Brenda Eckard<\/p>\n

In Lexington County, South Carolina, dashcam video showed a big flash of light falling through the sky on June 26.<\/p>\n

Brenda Eckard, 64, from Gilbert, South Carolina, previously told CNN she was driving home that June day when she saw a \u201cbig flash in the sky come down and disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

She first thought it was a meteor that \u201calmost looked like a firework,\u201d Eckard said. Eckard then called her husband to check if their house was still standing.<\/p>\n

The McDonough Meteorite is being stored at UGA for continued tests, according to UGA Today. Other pieces of it that fell on June 26 will be publicly displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Devon Sayers, Brandon Miller and Zenebou Sylla contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A meteorite that tore through the sky in June shaking the Southeast with a sonic boom is now…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[17393,22076,82191,19369,159,82189,783,82190,67,132,5541,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-136721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-american-meteor-society","9":"tag-arizona-state-university","10":"tag-earths-orbit","11":"tag-mcdonough","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-scott-harris","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-stony-meteorite","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-university-of-georgia","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115009719873676729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}