Tarda

Carbonaceous chondrite, C2, ungrouped
Witnessed fall in Morocco, 2020

An extremely rare witnessed fall, Tarda met Planet Earth at 2:30 pm Moroccan time (GMT+1) Tuesday August 25, 2020 in southern Morocco. The fireball was seen by many observers and created an African sensation, with thousand of people traveling to the fall site. Some pieces were found the very next day, explaining the pristine fusion crust. There are only thirty C2s known in all meteorite history and of those, only four are witnessed falls. Tarda is ungrouped, meaning it is different from other known C2 meteorites. It “likely formed on a hydrated parent body beyond the orbit of Jupiter’ (A. King, et al). In Earth’s ancient history, did meteorites like Tarda bring the water needed for life as we know it to our young and developing world?

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