Specimen E 4805 Murchison meteorite

Summary

This is one of many pieces of the Murchison meteorite, a rare example of a meteorite that was actually observed as it fell to Earth and was recovered soon after. It exploded in the atmosphere over Murchison, Victoria, on 28 September 1969 and fell over an area around 35 square kilometres. In total, around 100 kg of the meteorite was collected, and over 80 kg of that is in science collections. The Murchison meteorite is scientifically significant because it contains many organic molecules, including amino acids not found on Earth.