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Meteor Fragment Found in South Africa

An international team of scientists discover a large piece of a former asteroid that made a 100 mile-wide hole in the ground. The meteorite was found in the Morokweng crater in South Africa, while scientists were drilling bore holes into the area where the asteroid (which some news networks based in Florida forget becomes a meteor when it enters the earth`s atmosphere) melded with the ground.

The find is considered rare, because large objects are believed to melt or basically vaporize when they crash into the Earth. Dr. Marco Andreoli, a geologist at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, says, "At about 770m (2,500ft) down, we came across some dark blocks - one was about the size of a beachball - but we couldn`t figure out what it was."

To the scientists, surprise, chemical and mineral tests revealed the rock was a meteorite. Andreoli said "What is amazing is that here we have these fragments - that may not have been attached to the asteroid, or maybe trailing behind it - that smashed into the Earth and survived the fiery furnace in the crater that formed, and then they got trapped."