Every day, dozens of meteorites enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up. However, it is very rare for a meteorite to strike and damage a resident's house.
A unique incident happened to the Suzy Kop family in New Jersey, USA on Monday, May 8 2023. Quoted from futurism.com, Sunday (14/5/2023) they were struck by a foreign object from outer space which was suspected to be a 10x15 cm meteorite.
According to reports from the Hopewell Police, the incident has something to do with the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. This meteor shower reached its peak in the early hours of last Saturday.
The incident occurred very violently, how come a free-falling meteorite stone actually hit the roof and landed on the hardwood floor. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident.
"It seemed that whatever was coming from the sky fell through the roof of my father's bedroom window," Suzy Kop told CBS Philadelphia.
The meteorite then hit the floor. "I touched it because I was curious what stone it was, I don't know. And it felt warm," he continued.
Scientists have estimated that dozens of tons of meteorite material will enter Earth's atmosphere every day. But only a few space rocks actually make it through the atmosphere intact.
Unlike this incident, this incident is a rare occurrence because the object that hit a house in New Jersey was indeed a chunk of cosmic rock.
The Eta Aquarids are actually made up of small chunks of space debris that have been left behind by Halley's Comet, the famous cosmic body that passes Earth every 76 years.
Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, told CBS that the meteorite was probably very old, four or five billion years old. This means that these meteoroids have existed since the beginning of our universe. However, it is very rare for a meteorite to strike a house.
"The rock has been hanging around in space the whole time, and now it's coming to Earth, and it's falling right into their 'lap'," Pitts said.