Around two tons of space rock fell on the humble Mexican town of Allende in the late 1960s. This meteorite represents the oldest rocky remains in the Solar System that have fallen to Earth. Therefore, it is normal to think that NASA intervened to investigate the components and materials that came with them.
However, Mexican researchers tell the story that that rock, which weighs more than 2,000 kilos when divided into two parts, was broken into pieces as soon as it fell on the surface of the Mexican town, which is located in the state of Chihuahua.
Fernando Ortega, researcher at the Institute of Geology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, says in an interview for The Chihuahua Diarythat the Allende rock is older than the Sun itself. “It came to make us understand our origins, from when we were stardust to becoming living beings,” he said.
And that NASA, which arrived just two days after the rock had landed on Earth, took about 1 ton to investigate it. The rest, says the Mexican researcher, was torn apart among merchants and collectors in the area.
There are now remains of this rock even in the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
The Allende meteorite
The Allende meteorite is a carbonaceous chondrite, the oldest and most primitive type of meteorite known. It fell in the Mexican state of Chihuahua on February 8, 1969, and fragmented into more than 2 tons of material.
It is important for several reasons. Firstly, it is one of the oldest meteorites ever found, with an estimated age of 4.567 million years. This means that it formed shortly after the formation of the Solar System.
Secondly, the Allende meteorite is rich in organic compounds, which are the precursors of life. This has led scientists to believe that the meteorite could have contributed to the formation of life on Earth.
Third, the Allende meteorite contains a high content of carbon isotopes not found on Earth. This suggests that the meteorite formed in a different environment than Earth.