Allende, 1969: older than the planets
A fall that arrived just in time for the Apollo era.
At 1:05 am on 8 February 1969, a fireball lit up the Mexican state of Chihuahua and broke apart, scattering thousands of stones around the village of Pueblito de Allende. More than two tonnes have been collected, making it the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found.
The timing was perfect. Laboratories around the world were preparing to analyse the first Moon rocks from Apollo 11, and many practised their methods on Allende.
Allende is a CV3 carbonaceous chondrite packed with white calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions. These are the oldest solids known, about 4,567 million years old, and they are used to date the birth of the Solar System. Allende is probably the most studied meteorite in history.
In the catalogue
- Allende CV3, Mexico, 1969 · 2 t