Meteorite breaks through roof of a New Jersey house
Police also released an image showing the cracked floor alongside the object
May 11, 2023
In an unusual occurrence, a family in New Jersey said that an apparent meteorite crashed through their roof however, the members of the house were safe, reported CBS News.
Hopewell Police Department said in a statement: "A metallic object 'believed to be a meteorite' struck the roof of a ranch-style home."
"The oblong object of four to six inches went through the roof and ceiling of the home before it 'impacted the hardwood floor' and came to a stop," said Police.
Police also released an image showing the cracked floor alongside the object.
A resident of the home Suzy Kop told CBS Philadelphia that the meteorite landed in her father's bedroom, but no one was home.
Kop said: "I thank God that my father was not here, no one was here, we weren't hurt or anything."
She said she found the object amid debris in the room after it came through the ceiling, adding that at first it was believed to be thrown.
"I did touch the thing because I thought it was a random rock, I don't know, and it was warm," she said.
Emergency responders checked on her and her family, confirming that there were no lingering substances or effects from the object, she highlighted. It all "came back clear".
According to the Police, they have contacted several other agencies to positively identify the object and to help safeguard the residents and the object.
They said: "The object could be connected to an ongoing meteor shower called the Eta Aquariids, an event related to Halley's Comet that is visible from mid-April to late May and usually peaks around May 5 each year."
A further investigation into the matter is underway.
Chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute Derrick Pitts, told CBS that the object could be billions of years old, and could be as old as the solar system itself.
"It's been running around in space all that time and now it's come to Earth and fell in their laps," Pitts said adding that "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."
