Meteors hit our atmosphere many times a day. However, we are rarely aware of them as they are mostly particles the size of dust or small stones. They will not reach the surface of the world because they will burn up many miles above the Earth. Now and again, a larger meteor will get all the way down to the surface. There is film footage of some of these, and they are spectacular. But it is very rare that anyone is hurt or killed by these. This is because most of the area of the Earth is covered in water or land where few live. It has been estimated that only around 12% of the land is inhabited. Mountains and deserts make living difficult.
So, it is unusual to hear of, in this case, a small meteorite crashing through the roof of a home in Georgia in the USA. It has become known as the McDonough meteorite after the town where the house was located. After it had been recovered, researchers at a university got to study it and came up with some very interesting information about its history and journey to this person’s house.
It had originated in the Asteroid Belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is believed that it broke away from an asteroid which was in collision with another. But further analysis showed that this happened around 500 billion years ago. This makes it millions of years older than the Earth, which was formed around 4,600 billion years ago.
This particular piece of rock was ejected from the Asteroid belt and went into its own orbit around the Sun. It just so happened that its orbit crossed that of the Earth, and eventually, they both intersected, and the little piece of rock dropped in to visit the Earth; its long journey was finally over.
John Pullen 