A mysterious extraterrestrial visitor now has a permanent home and identity, thanks to University of Georgia researchers.
The newly named McDonough Meteorite crash landed in Atlanta on June 26 after catching eyes across the Southeast as the fireball streaked through the daytime sky.
23 grams of fragments, which tore through a residential roof in Henry County, were turned over to over to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert to determine its origin and classification.
And it turns out these new chunks are actually quite old –– older than the Earth itself at 4.56 billion years.
Before the meteor broke into analyzable fragments, researchers clocked the bolide (another way to say fireball or bright meteor) entering the atmosphere at cosmic velocity. That’s a massive rock hurtling toward McDonough faster than the speed of sound.
By the time a bolide gets closer to Earth’s surface, it does diminish in speed and size. But a fast traveling rock the size of a cherry tomato is nothing to sneeze at.
The meteorite still had enough impact to go through a man’s roof and his HVAC duct, leave a solid dent in his floor and make a sound and vibration equivalent to a close-range gunshot.
In addition to finalizing its lineage, UGA is working with colleagues at Arizona State University to submit their findings, along with the name McDonough Meteorite, to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society.