A Novato Meteorite (IMAGE)

University of Arizona

A Novato Meteorite

Caption

This image shows the exterior of a meteorite produced when a small asteroid broke up in the atmosphere near Novato, California on Oct. 17, 2012. It shows extensive dark impact melt that is 4472±31 million years old (Yin et al. 2014). This age is similar to the ~4470 million year old age of the Moon predicted by our model. The Novato meteorite is classified as an ordinary chondrite (type L6). It came from a different asteroid than the Chelyabinsk bolide, but both experienced major impacts at roughly the same time as the Moon-forming giant impact. We argue these impact melts were created when high velocity debris from the Moon-forming impact event hit the parent asteroids of the Chelyabinsk and Novato bolides and heated near-surface material.

Credit

Peter Jenniskens, SETI Institute

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