The Novato meteorite is an
ordinary chondrite
The ordinary chondrites (sometimes called the O chondrites) are a class of stony chondritic meteorites. They are by far the most numerous group, comprising 87% of all finds. Hence, they have been dubbed "ordinary". The ordinary chondrites are th ...
which entered the Earth's atmosphere and broke up over
Northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
at 19:44
Pacific Time
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
on 17 October 2012. The falling
bolide
A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a ...
created a bright fireball and
sonic boom
A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to t ...
s and fragmented into smaller pieces as the intense friction of passing through the atmosphere heated it and absorbed its kinetic energy.
The meteoroid was about across.
Meteorite
The first fragment of the meteorite (N01) was recovered by Lisa Webber on 20 October after reading a story in the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' that described the NASA/CAMS meteor trajectory predicting a fall area in the
North Bay.
Lisa recalled hearing a sound on her roof the night of the meteor and went outside and located a 62 gram stone. Analysis of fragment N01 by Dr. Alan Rubin came back as a
L6 breccia.
76th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting (2013). Retrieved on 2013-12-01.
The second fragment was found by Brien Cook on 22 October (66 grams) and the third fragment was found by Jason Utas on 27 October (79 grams).Sutter's Mill meteorite
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. The name comes from Sutter's Mill, a California ...
.
See also
* Glossary of meteoritics
This is a glossary of terms used in meteoritics, the science of meteorites.
#
* 2 Pallas – an asteroid from the asteroid belt and one of the likely parent bodies of the CR meteorites.
* 4 Vesta – second-largest asteroid in the asteroid b ...
References
External links
Bay Area Fireball, Oct. 17, 2012
(Animation of Robert P. Moreno Jr images)
Bob Moreno images of meteor just outside Santa Rosa
(ABC 17 Oct 2012)
CAMS
News blog (CAMS is an automated video surveillance of the night sky in search of meteors to validate minor showers in the IAU Working List of Meteor Showers)
Meteorite Hunt (Jason Utas)
(Bob Verish)
{{2012 in space
Meteorites found in the United States
Modern Earth impact events
2012 in California
2012 in space
Marin County, California
Geology of California
October 2012 events in the United States
21st-century astronomical events