Peru meteorite may rewrite rules

[malaise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7292863.stm

<snip>
Usually, only meteorites made of metal survive the passage through Earth's atmosphere sufficiently intact to scoop out a crater.

But the object which came down in the Puno region of Peru was a relatively fragile stony meteorite. During the fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere, these are thought to fragment into smaller pieces which then scatter over a wide area.

Yet pieces of the estimated 1m-wide meteorite are thought to have stayed together during entry, hitting the ground as one.

Details of the work were unveiled at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.

Surprising speed

Peter Schultz told the conference that the meteorite was travelling at about 24,000km/h (15,000mph) at the moment of impact - much faster than would be expected.