Homestead, Meteorite site in Iowa County, United States
The Homestead meteorite is a fall from 1875 when fragments from space scattered across a wide area between Amana and Boltonville in Iowa County. Scientists continue to locate and study pieces of it at different museums and research institutions today.
In February 1875 a bright fireball crossed the Midwest sky and roughly 100 meteorite pieces fell near Homestead. This event led to important advances in how scientists studied objects from space.
The discovery of this meteorite event helped establish how scientists classify space materials and turned the area into an important location for mineral research. The find attracted early researchers eager to understand what objects from space are made of.
The largest preserved pieces are now in museums and research centers where visitors can see them. It helps to check ahead which institutions nearby display these pieces.
The first piece was found by Sarah Sherlock and could have easily been missed since snow cover made searching for more pieces difficult at first. Without this early discovery the entire event might have been forgotten.
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