Today in TechMeteorite crashes through roof of “Comette” family near Paris
After noticing a leak in the roof, the Comette family came to learn that their home had been struck by something not-of-this-Earth. Martine Comette of the coincidentally-named household on the outskirts of Paris reached out to Alain Carion, a mineral expert, to investigate the strange material after a roofer suggested it was unlike anything he'd seen before. Carion's tests identified that the source of the mysterious damage was a 3.5 ounce meteorite that is believed to be 4.57 billion years old.
Meteorites aren't exactly an everyday occurence as is, but the Comette's meteorite is actually the first of its kind for the greater Paris area. Over the last 400 years, only around 50 meteorites have fallen to Earth in France.
The meteorite is a chondrite, a kind space rock (and the most commonly occuring form of meteorite) that is formed from dust that pre-dates the birth of our own solar system. Its mineral composition points to an origin in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
[Image credit: Computer Science Geek]
This article originally appeared on Tecca
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