On July 19, 1912, a fireball brighter than the full Moon crossed the evening sky over northeastern Arizona, followed by an explosion that rattled windows for miles — and then thousands of meteorites rained down on the town of Holbrook. Over 14,000 fragments would eventually be recovered, making it one of the largest documented meteorite falls in history. This episode of Sidequests covers what actually happened that night, why Earth's atmosphere is a far more effective shield than most people realize, why nobody died despite thousands of space rocks falling from the sky, and why the Holbrook meteorites — chunks of rock that formed 4.5 billion years ago — are still being actively studied today.
","author_name":"Keith Conrad"}