Qualla: Allende Meteorite https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Allende Meteorite https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite Allende Meteorite: Introduction https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite/ Photo credit Jon Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0. The timing was almost too perfect. In early 1969, NASA's lunar laboratories were humming with preparation, new instruments were being calibrated, and planetary scientists were gearing up for the Apollo missions that would bring back the first Moon rocks. Then, just months before those samples arrived, the sky over northern Mexico delivered a gift of its own. At 1:05 AM on February 8, a fireball approached from the southwest, lit the sky and ground for hundreds of miles, and exploded over the village of Pueblito de Allende in the state of Chihuahua. Thousands of black, fusion-crusted fragments rained across the desert. The scientific community was ready. They had the tools, the funding, and the hunger. What they received was the largest carbonaceous chondrite ever found on Earth -- and a window into the first moments of the Solar System.

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Image: Jon Taylor | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/9sv1-allende-meteorite-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Allende Meteorite: A Rock the Size of a Car https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite/ Photo credit Jon Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0. The original stone is believed to have been roughly the size of an automobile, hurtling toward Earth at more than 16 kilometers per second. When it hit the atmosphere, air resistance braked it so violently that it shattered into thousands of pieces, each one developing a glassy b...

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Image: Jon Taylor | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/9sv1-allende-meteorite-a-rock-the-size-of-a-car.mp3 0:06 2 full Allende Meteorite: Older Than the Earth Itself https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite/ Photo credit Claire H., CC BY-SA 2.0. Carbonaceous chondrites make up only about four percent of observed meteorite falls, and before 1969 the class was poorly understood. Allende changed that overnight. Sliced open and polished, the meteorite reveals a dark matrix embedded with millimeter-sized chondrules -- tiny st...

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Image: Claire H. | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/9sv1-allende-meteorite-older-than-the-earth-itself.mp3 0:06 3 full Allende Meteorite: Stardust and Supernovae https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite/ Photo credit Daderot, CC0. The deeper scientists looked, the stranger Allende became. A 1977 analysis at the California Institute of Technology found that isotopes of calcium, barium, and neodymium in the meteorite did not match anything from our Solar System -- they had originated in other stars entirely....

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Image: Daderot | CC0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/9sv1-allende-meteorite-stardust-and-supernovae.mp3 0:06 4 full Allende Meteorite: The Best-Studied Meteorite in History https://qualla.com/allende-meteorite/ Photo credit Original uploader was Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0. Allende earned its reputation through sheer accessibility. The Smithsonian Institution and other museums launched immediate expeditions to collect samples, gathering hundreds of kilograms of material. Because the fall coincided with the buildup to Apollo 11, the scientific infras...

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Image: Original uploader was Brocken Inaglory | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/s/v/1/allende-meteorite-wp/9sv1-allende-meteorite-the-best-studied-meteorite-in-history.mp3 0:06 5 full