Meteorite That Hit GA House Is 'Older Than Earth'

ATHENS, GA — A meteor that ripped through a Georgia man's roof faster than the speed of sound in June now has a name, and researchers say it is "older than the Earth itself."

The University of Georgia, which acquired 23 grams of the meteor's fragments after it crash-landed on June 26 in Henry County, dubbed the phenom the McDonough Meteorite.

Meteorites are bits of meteors that rapidly tear through the Earth's atmosphere and burn with a "streaking flash of light," according to the National Park Service.

At the time, there were speculations that an earthquake shook parts of Georgia, but the National Weather Service confirmed the sonic boom.

The meteorite pieces were given to a UGA planetary geologist and impact expert, the university said in a news release published Friday.

Glimpses of the McDonough Meteorite could be seen across the Southeast as it dropped into Georgia. Its chunks are 4.56 billion years old, "older than the Earth itself," UGA said.

Scientists say the planet is about 4.54 billion years old.

Researchers say before the meteor burst into parts, the fireball broke the atmosphere at cosmic velocity.

"That’s a massive rock hurtling toward McDonough faster than the speed of sound. By the time a bolide (fireball) gets closer to Earth’s surface, it does diminish in speed and size. But a fast traveling rock the size of a cherry tomato is nothing to sneeze at," UGA said.

A cherry tomato is twice the size of a 50-caliber high-performance military rifle shell, researcher Scott Harris said in the release.

RELATED: Apparent Meteor May Have Crashed Into GA Home

He likened the speed of the meteor to running three times in a 5K race in a matter of a second.

"That's how fast these are going when they encounter Earth," Harris said in the release.

The meteorite tore a hole through a man's roof and his HVAC duct, dented his floor and made "a sound and vibration equivalent to a close-range gunshot," UGA said.

The energy from it could turn the meteorite into dust, which Harris said the homeowner could still be retrieving from his living room sofa.

"It was under so much stress that it just broke apart in its flight probably a couple of miles still up in the atmosphere," Harris said in the release.

"And then those pieces made it to the ground as individual meteorites that have been collected by meteorite hunters, by some local residents. But one of them actually penetrated a house — went right through the roof, through the ceiling and into the floor. And we've had the pleasure and the opportunity to examine that — both the rock, as well as the dynamics of the entry through the house."

The NWS, at the time, said the hole was the size of a golf ball.

The object moved at 30,000 mph southwest, and its initial sighting was 48 miles above Oxford, Bill Cooke told WYFF. Cooke is lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

It perished 27 miles above West Forest, releasing 20 tons of trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT, Cooke told WYFF.

Authorities in Newton County said they received sightings in or near Covington.

Officials in Forsyth, Rockdale and Dawson counties also reported sightings, AccuWeather said.

UGA said it is working with Arizona State University to submit their findings and the name, McDonough Meteorite, to the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society.

ALSO SEE: Get The Latest Local News (For Free!) With One Quick Tap