The iron core of an ancient and destroyed asteroid, fell 1947 on Earth

The Sikhote-Alin meteoroid entered Earth’s atmosphere on February 12, 1947, over the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in far eastern Russia.

Based on trajectory reconstruction and recovered mass estimates, the original body is thought to have been a fragment of a differentiated parent asteroid, most likely originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Its pre-entry orbit suggests it was perturbed by gravitational interactions—possibly resonances with Jupiter—into an Earth-crossing trajectory. This dynamical pathway is consistent with many iron meteorites, which are believed to derive from the cores of early planetesimals disrupted during the chaotic phase of Solar System formation.