Meteorite invades Planet Earth – lands in New Jersey

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Sunday, 07 January 2007

If the meteorite had landed in Iraq, no-one might have noticed. But it ripped through the roof of a New Jersey house, demolishing a second-floor bathroom and quite possibly provoking hilarious jokes that ‘the sky is falling’!

Now confirmed not to be the ‘blue ice’ that is sometimes ejected from passing airplanes, the mysterious object from outer space has been confirmed to be a meteorite, by Dr Jeremy S. Delaney from the Rutgers University, one of the few lucky enough to be able to examine it. He says the find is ‘pretty exciting’, and he should know – he is reported to have examined thousands of meteorites in his time.

The owners of the house have asked not to be identified, but there’s no doubt that the neighbours know exactly who received an unexpected offworld non-organic visitor. Despite this, news reports say that the house is owned by Srini Nageswaran and his elderly parents.

Dubbed the ‘Freehold Township’ meteorite, as it landed in that district, its only the second known meteorite to land in New Jersey, with the first recorded in 1829 in the seaside town of Deal. Had it landed in Deal today, no doubt the news broadcasters would have screamed ‘Deal or No Deal!’. In this case, No Deal. It’s in Freehold Township, instead.

The meteorite landed at approximately 4.30pm local time, and after smashing through the roof, it ended up embedded in the bathroom wall. It’s the size of a golf ball and weighs about 13 ounces, or around as much as a can of soup, according to officials.

Of course, now that it has landed in such a spectacular way, collectors are likely to be very interested, possibly giving Mr Nageswaran and unexpected fillup to his retirement savings.

Don Yeoman, head of the NASA Near Earth Objects Program, said that: “The fact that it did come crashing through a house makes it of interest to collectors.” After all, how often does something land in your house? Yoeman says that: “It's happened half a dozen times in the last 400 years.”

Interesting meteorites with a compelling back story are also of high interest to collectors. After all, there’s not many people who can truly say that own something that ‘came from outer space!’

So, instead of just hoping to win the lottery, you might want to start hoping that a meteorite lands in your bathroom, too. Just hopefully while you’re not using it!
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