Sutter's Mill meteorite

Sutter's Mill meteorite
Fragments of the Sutter's Mill meteorite obtained from Henningsen Lotus Park, Lotus, California.[1]
TypeChondrite
ClassCarbonaceous chondrite
GroupCM2
CountryUnited States
RegionCalifornia
Coordinates37°36′N 120°30′W / 37.6°N 120.5°W / 37.6; -120.5 (airburst)[2]
38°48’14"N, 120°54’29"W[3]
Observed fallYes
Fall date22 April 2012
Found date24 April 2012
TKW952.7 grams[4]
Strewn fieldYes
SM33 (8.5 g) fragment with a small part of the fusion crust missing[5]
Related media on Wikimedia Commons

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]

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.

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  10. ^ "California meteorite a scientific gold mine". April 14, 2014.
  11. ^ Summers, Becky (2012). "US meteorite was fastest on record". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.12095.
  12. ^ "Meteorite Found in California Contains Some of the Oldest Material in the Solar System". Business Insider.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ames141110 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).