Sutter's Mill meteorite
Meteorite that fell to Earth on 22 April 2012 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Sutter's Mill meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite which entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke up at about 07:51 Pacific Time on April 22, 2012, with fragments landing in the United States.[6][7] The name comes from Sutter's Mill, a California Gold Rush site, near which some pieces were recovered.[3][8] Meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens assigned Sutter's Mill (SM) numbers to each meteorite, with the documented find location preserving information about where a given meteorite was located in the impacting meteoroid. As of May 2014, 79 fragments had been publicly documented with a find location. The largest (SM53) weighs 205 grams (7.2 oz),[4][9] and the second largest (SM50) weighs 42 grams (1.5 oz).[9]
Sutter's Mill meteorite | |
---|---|
Type | Chondrite |
Class | Carbonaceous chondrite |
Group | CM2 |
Country | United States |
Region | California |
Coordinates | 37.6°N 120.5°W / 37.6; -120.5 (airburst)[2] 38°48’14"N, 120°54’29"W[3] |
Observed fall | Yes |
Fall date | 22 April 2012 |
Found date | 24 April 2012 |
TKW | 952.7 grams[4] |
Strewn field | Yes |
SM33 (8.5 g) fragment with a small part of the fusion crust missing[5] | |
Related media on Wikimedia Commons |
The meteorite was found to contain some of the oldest material in the Solar System.[10][11][12] Two 10-micron diamond grains (xenoliths) were found in meteorite fragments recovered before any rain fell as the rain would degrade the purity of the meteorites for scientific study.[13] In primitive meteorites like Sutter's Mill, some grains survived from what existed in the cloud of gas, dust and ice that formed the Solar System.