Rock that crashed through New Jersey home may be 5 billion-year-old chunk of Halley's Comet
An apparent meteorite crashed into a bedroom in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, on Monday (May 8). A scientific analysis is pending.
By Stephanie Pappas, May 11, 2023 LIVE SCIENCE
A rock likely to be a meteorite crashed into a New Jersey home on Monday (May 8), damaging a bedroom but causing no injuries. The black rock that fell through a New Jersey family's roof happened during the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.
No one was at Suzy Kop's home in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, when the space rock made its entrance, according to CBS News Philadelphia, which first reported the unusual event. The meteorite landed around 1 p.m. EDT, crashing through the roof and landing in the bedroom belonging to Kop's father. Judging by the damage, the meteorite hit the floor, bounced to the ceiling, and came to rest in the corner of a room. The metallic rock measures about 4 inches by 6 inches (10 by 15 centimeters).
"I did touch the thing because I thought it was a random rock… and it was warm," Kop told CBS News.
Authorities are still investigating the origin of the apparent space rock, but Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, told CBS News that it could be 4 to 5 billion years old.
It’s possible that the meteorite was part of the ongoing Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which roughly occurs between April 19 and May 29 each year, and which reached its peak around May 5 and 6. During peak days, the shower can produce hundreds of "shooting stars" per hour — most of which are meteors that burn up in the atmosphere. These meteors are the rocky debris left by Halley's Comet, which becomes visible from Earth every 75 to 79 years, according to NASA.
"For it to actually strike a house, for people to be able to pick up, that's really unusual and has happened very few times in history," Pitts said.
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