Facts about Meteorites
- 08
Every year, approximately 500 kilograms of meteoritic material falls to Earth's surface, with Antarctica accounting for roughly 90 percent of all meteorite discoveries due to its icy terrain and dark space rocks being easily visible against white ice.
- 07
Martian meteorites like ALH84001, ejected from Mars by asteroid impacts 15 million years ago, traveled through space for millions of years before landing in Antarctica and providing scientists direct samples of the Red Planet's geology.
- 06
Lunar meteorites recovered in Antarctica since 1969 compose less than 0.5 percent of all meteorite finds yet provide crucial samples of the Moon's geology without requiring expensive spacecraft missions.
- 05
At 4.5 billion years old, the Canyon Diablo meteorite's iron core provides evidence that planetary differentiation occurred within the first 30 million years of solar system formation.
- 04
Carbonaceous meteorites contain organic compounds including amino acids, demonstrating that meteorites delivered prebiotic chemistry to early Earth around 4.5 billion years ago.
- 03
On October 9, 1992, a meteorite weighing 27 kilograms struck a parked car in Peekskill, New York, creating one of the most documented impact events captured on video by multiple witnesses.
- 02
Iron meteorites can contain Widmanstätten patterns, crystalline structures that form only when metal cools extremely slowly over millions of years in space.
- 01
The Allende meteorite that fell in Mexico on February 8, 1969 contained 4.56 billion year old presolar grains, the oldest known solid materials in our solar system.