Possible Meteorite Strikes New Jersey Home
A possible meteorite struck a New Jersey home, authorities said Monday (May 8) per CNN. The house is located in Hopewell Township, where a something (maybe a meteorite) crashed through the roof of a house and ricocheted around a bedroom. No one was in the bedroom at the time of the incident, and no injuries were reported.
“I did touch the thing because I just thought it was a random rock,” Suzy Kop, a resident who said the rock fell through the roof of her father’s bedroom, told CNN affiliate KYW-TV in Philadelphia. “And it was warm.”
“I just thank God that my father was not here. No one was here,” she added. “You know, we weren’t hurt or anything.”
Meteorites – rocks from space that land on earth – come in all different shapes and sizes. While the residents said the rock was warm, many meteorites are cold, at least by Earth standards. The reasoning behind this is that deep space is cold. While it heats up when it enters the atomosphere, the outer surface will become vaporized. It is not enough time for this heat to reach inside the meteorite.
Since most of our planet is covered in oceans or undeveloped areas, a meteorite hitting a populated area is rare. Authorities in New Jersey said the possible meteorite that struck on Monday measured about 4 inches by 6 inches. “It penetrated the roof, the ceiling and then impacted the hardwood floor before coming to a rest,” police said.
While there were no physical injuries, emergency personnel also scanned the New Jersey residents for any residue. “They were afraid that, you know, because it fell from the sky, was it radioactive? Could we have a type of residue on us? So they scanned us and everything came back clear,” Kop said.
The Hopewell Township police department shared in an update that it “has contacted several other agencies for assistance in positively identifying the object and safeguarding the residents and the object.”
