On 26 June 2025, midday skies over the southeastern United States flared as a fireball raced overhead, followed seconds later by a thunder-like blast. Hours later, investigators traced the spectacle to a single fragment that pierced the roof of a home in McDonough, Georgia, and bored a small crater in the living-room floor.
Planetary geologist Scott Harris of the University of Georgia led the field team that recovered the stone, informally dubbed the McDonough Meteorite. “Part of the stone was pulverized on impact, like somebody hitting it with a sledgehammer,” said Harris, according to a report in the Economic Times. A 23-gram chip broke from a larger piece roughly the size of a cherry tomato; the homeowner said he still swept fine particles of space dust from the impact site.
Laboratory work showed the specimen to be a low-metal ordinary chondrite. Isotopic dating placed its formation at about 4.56 billion years, predating Earth by roughly 20 million years. “We are talking about materials that date back to the early stages of the solar system,” said Harris, according to the Economic Times.
Orbital reconstruction indicated the fragment originated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and likely came from debris generated when a much larger body broke apart around 470 million years ago. The stone entered the house at an estimated one kilometre per second after producing a sonic boom that rattled windows across Georgia and neighboring states. Harris believed the homeowner heard three distinct sounds: the roof strike, the mid-air shock wave, and the final thud on the floor.
The recovery marked the twenty-seventh confirmed meteorite found in Georgia and only the sixth witnessed fall in the state. “In the past, meteorite recoveries happened once every few decades, but today, doorbell cameras and rapid online reports let us find them much faster,” said Harris, according to the Economic Times.
Researchers divided samples among laboratories at the University of Georgia and Arizona State University and prepared a formal name submission for the Meteoritical Society’s Nomenclature Committee. Once studies conclude, pieces will go on public display at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville.
Beyond its scientific value, the fall offered a reminder of planetary risks. “If an asteroid is moving toward us and we act in time, we can make it avoid us completely,” said Harris, referring to NASA’s recent DART deflection test. Understanding small fragments, he added, helped scientists gauge the paths and hazards of larger objects that could one day threaten Earth.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.