Perihelion History And Atmospheric Survival As Primary Drivers Of The Earth’s Meteorite Record

Models predict that more than half of all impacting meteoroids should be carbonaceous, reflecting the abundance of carbon-rich asteroids in the main belt and near-Earth space.

Yet carbonaceous chondrites represent only about 4% of meteorites recovered worldwide. Here we analyse 7,982 meteoroid impacts and 540 potential meteorite falls from 19 global observation networks and demonstrate that intense thermal stress at low perihelion distances coupled with the filtering effect of Earth`s atmosphere explains this mismatch.

Meteoroids repeatedly subjected to intense thermal cycling near the Sun fracture and weaken, removing the most friable objects even before atmospheric entry. Our data also show that tidally disrupted meteoroid streams produce especially fragile fragments that rarely survive to the ground.

Consequently, compact, higher-strength, thermally cycled bodies dominate the meteorite record. These findings reconcile the predicted carbonaceous flux with its scarcity in collections, underscoring how orbital evolution and atmospheric filtering shape the materials that reach Earth`s surface.

Patrick M. Shober, Hadrien A. R. Devillepoix, Jeremie Vaubaillon, Simon Anghel, Sophie E. Deam, Eleanor K. Sansom, Francois Colas, Brigitte Zanda, Pierre Vernazza, Phil Bland

Comments: Accepted in Nature Astronomy
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2504.10690 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2504.10690v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2504.10690
Focus to learn more
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02526-6
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Patrick Shober
[v1] Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:25:05 UTC (9,003 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10690
Astrobiology,