The oldest object known to humans fell from the sky on Feb. 8, 1969, with the furor of a divine omen. The blue-white fireball streaked over northern Mexico at 1:05 a.m., ending with a staccato of booms heard from hundreds of miles away. A small asteroid had struck Earth’s atmosphere and exploded — raining thousands of rocky fragments over the desert.
NASA dispatched scientists to the site, and days later they returned with 13 fragments of the space rock. Each was coated with a smooth, glassy rind, the heat of atmospheric entry having melted the exterior. But when the rocks were cracked open, their insides looked pristine: gray-black stone jumbled with numerous white and gray nuggets the size of peas.
The Allende meteorite, named for the Mexican village near the landing site, truly was a portent from heaven. It contained the secrets of our past — exotic materials from our solar system’s birth, and the ashes of stars that died long before our own sun was born. In the 48 years since it fell to Earth, the meteorite has spurred research into our planetary origins, leading most recently to a NASA mission, launched last fall, to collect more of this primitive material right from the source. Scientists are unraveling the oldest story on Earth — and it’s fantastic.
