Posted on 06/13/2004 1:16:26 AM PDT by freebilly
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer.
The 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) chunk of space debris dropped out of the sky and plummeted through the tiled roof of the Auckland home Saturday.
"I was in the kitchen doing breakfast and there was this almighty explosion," owner Brenda Archer told the Sunday Star-Times newspaper.
"It was like a bomb had gone off. I couldn't see anything, there was just dust."
Archer's one-year-old grandson had been playing nearby minutes before it hit.
It is only the ninth meteorite found in New Zealand and the first to hit a home.
The Archers, who are following expert advice by drying the rock out in their oven, plan to sell it or give it to a museum.
Experts believe the meteorite, a chunk of an asteroid, could be worth more than NZ$10,000 ($6,290), the newspaper said.
Yeah, I don't know, I could raise the serious issue of you guys tying your kangaroos down, but I won't.
Did you hear the AB/England score today?
Like fixing the roof, floors, walls and basement, too!
But from reading the full story, I see that the material evidence of the fall of the space rock through the house are also valuable - even the debris! I guess like the $100 chads on eBay, Brenda Archer can make a mint selling dustbin contents on eBay, mote by mote.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
.just one more example of why we need government-regulated helmets.
Loved that movie! Kate Reid as Dr. Ruth Leavitt was awsome. :-)
Dutton: "They spent 50,000$ on this road"; Leavitt: "Putting in the potholes"?
:-) LOL!
...I'll bid 50 cents!!!
Just search "meteorite" on eBay, and you will find hundreds, most for low prices. You can get an ordinary multi-pounder for as little as a hundred bucks a pound.
if aussiebloke was right, pretty soon the value of that rock will be plumetting, too...
How would the rock only being doing 225 MPH when it hit the house??? The speed estimated in the article you linked.
so the rock is going in the oven, Huh? sounds like this family hasn't seen the movie " The Blob "
Obviously deployed a chute well in advance of target penetration.
Actually, I wonder if it bounced in a lake, slowed down, and got wet, too.
Rugby is a stupid game and I avoid it like the plague. Was very disappointed to see Fleming and the rest go down to England so easily in the cricket though. Riddled with injuries I know but they could have done better for Chrus Cairns in his last game.
I wanted to post this in breaking news because the house got broken..
LOL
Damn Nazis deserved it!
Oh...sorry, "NZ" means New Zealand. I shouldn't scan these posts so darn fast!
I watch too much History Channel! ;-)
Another?
Did a meteorite crash in Sydney?
SYDNEY, Jun 17. (AP): A "house-sized" meteorite reportedly slammed to Earth and exploded with a bright flash just south of Sydney, police said today, but only a handful of people saw it and officers haven't been able to find the rock.
Air traffic controllers on duty at Sydney Airport Tower saw a meteorite around 4:30 IST yesterday, but did not give details of its size.
The report that it was the size of a house came from one motorist traveling on a highway near Bulli, about 50 km south of Sydney.
"Extensive police patrols of the area could not locate the object," police said in a statement.
Prof. Steven Williams of the Grove Creek Observatory told Sky News he had received phone calls from about six people who said they saw a "gigantic streak" heading south, but said he could not explain the phenomenon and hoped somebody would find some trace of the meteorite.
"If I had a helicopter ... I would be out there myself trying to find it," he told Sky.
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