Posted on 05/10/2023 8:08:46 AM PDT by Red Badger
A photo of the suspected meteorite that hit a home in New Jersey on May 8, 2023. Photo courtesy Hopewell Township Police Department/Facebook
The week started with a bang for a homeowner in New Jersey after a likely meteorite blasted a hole through a house early Monday afternoon.
A metallic rock fell out of the sky and hit a house in Hopewell Township, N.J., located approximately 10 miles north of Trenton. The Hopewell Township Police Department responded to the incident and confirmed that the oblong-shaped rock damaged the building.
"It penetrated the roof, the ceiling and then impacted the hardwood floor before coming to a rest," the police department said. No one was injured during the incident.
An investigation is underway to identify the rock and to determine if it is indeed from space. Scientists will closely examine the rock, which appears to have a charred exterior and measures approximately 4 inches by 6 inches.
The Hopewell Township Police Department said that the meteorite could be related to the recent peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, but it is still unclear if the two events are related.
Smaller space rocks typically burn up and disintegrate when entering Earth's atmosphere, but larger rocks can make it to the surface of the planet. Space rocks that reach the surface of the Earth are called meteorites.
Contrary to popular belief, many meteorites that hit the ground are not hot enough to start a fire. According to the American Meteor Society, meteors like the one that fell in New Jersey may be warm when they hit the Earth, but "probably reach the ground at only slightly above ambient temperature."
Although it's extremely rare for a meteorite to hit a house, there have been several notable incidents in the past.
On Oct. 3, 2021, a softball-sized meteorite crashed through a house in British Columbia, Canada, landing in a bed just inches away from a woman who wasing.
One of the most famous meteorite crashes in recent U.S. history took place on Oct. 9, 1992, when a 26-pound space rock hit a car parked in a driveway in Peekskill, New York, just north of New York City. The vehicle became world famous and was on display in several museums, including France's National Museum of Natural History.
Right! If I was the occupant of that house, I wouldn’t be letting it out of my sight. Some big bucks, there…
Okay, maybe that lame horse headed thing from the Pine Barrens.
Ha! Ever been to the Pine Barrens.
Some interesting NASA info:
"Scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of meteoritic material falls on Earth each day." It's surprising more things don't get hit.
"99.8 percent come from asteroids. 0.2 percent of meteorites are split roughly equally between meteorites from Mars and the Moon. The over 60 known Martian meteorites were blasted off Mars by meteoroid impacts."
Most meteorites, ranging from a few kilograms up to about 8 tons (7,000 kg), will lose all of their cosmic velocity and after a certain point called the retardation point, they begin to accelerate again, under the influence of the Earth’s gravity (9.8 meters per second squared).
The meteorite will then quickly reach its terminal velocity of 200 to 400 miles per hour (90 to 180 meters per second or 320 to 640 km/h).
According to astronomers, when a meteorite hit the Earth’s ground, the maximum theoretical impact speeds are:
Lucky people that no one was in that spot when it hit.
Hope they can sell it for lots of moolah.
Pennies fom Heaven.
Yes,it’s in Mercer County. Named after Hugh Mercer, one of George Washington’s generals. Hopewell is a very upscale community and tends to vote conservative.
It’s also where Charles Lindbergh lived.
The homeowner must have ticked off the gods!
Meteorites are worth $$$$$$$, especially FRESH ONES!................
This was in the past 3 to 5 years. There may have been a different one in 2001.
A very small meteor hit the porch of my house in Utah shortly after we moved there in 2019. We heard a loud bang out the front door and when we went out to look we found about a ¾” crater perhaps a ¼” deep in the concrete of our porch. It was not were a bullet could have hit, as there was concrete balustrades on two sides that blocked any place such a bullet could have come from with sufficient velocity to leave a crater.
The meteor itself was not to be found. It seems to have been turned to the dust we found star splashed radiating away from the small crater.
I named it Crater Kathy in honor of LadySwordmaker.
It may have been an iron meteorite, even more rare and valuable, and it ricocheted off to the yard. Use a metal detector to try and locate it!........................................
Possible, but given the size of Crater Kathy, it would have been so small, it’s likely the size a very small grain of sand… very tiny.
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