A house in New Jersey has been struck by a meteorite that might have come from Halley’s Comet, according to scientists who investigated the incident.
No one was hurt when the space rock crashed through the roof of a home in Hopewell Township, N.J., on Monday. Homeowner Suzy Kop told CBS News that she found a hole in the ceiling of her father’s bedroom, and explained that the meteorite then ricocheted off the floor and took a divot out of the ceiling before coming to rest.
“I did touch the thing because I just thought it was a random rock,” she told CBS News. “And it was warm!”
Meteorite strikes causing property damage are extremely rare. In October of 2021 a woman in Golden, B.C., was woken up when a meteorite crashed through her roof directly over where she was sleeping. The Peekskill meteorite of 1992 took out a 1980 Chevy Malibu, and in 1938 a meteorite struck a Pontiac in rural Illinois.
Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, said the metallic black rock, measuring about 10 by 15 cm and weighing about 1.8 kg, could be four to five billion years old.
Speculation is that the meteorite may have been part of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower, visible from about April 19 to May 28 each year, with peak activity around May 5. The annual event comprises particles that were ejected from Halley’s Comet in 390 BC.
The comet itself is now about as far from us as it gets, and will reach apehelion – its farthest distance from the sun – on Dec. 9, before starting its long trek back to the inner solar system. Halley was last visible to the naked eye in 1986, and its next close pass will be in 2061. Until then, one New Jersey family has a possible memento.
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