Possible meteorite crashes through roof of New Jersey home
"It was warm. It definitely was warm. Again I just thought it was a random rock from outside," recalled Suzy Kop.
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (WPVI) -- A New Jersey family says they're still in shock after a possible meteorite smashed through a roof.
Christine Lloyd took Action News inside an upstairs bedroom of her father's Hopewell Township home along Old Washington Crossing Pennington Road.
"This is the point of entry. And then apparently it came through there and then it came and hit that floor," she explained.
But the mystery object wasn't done.
It appears to have ricocheted across the room, making another hole in the ceiling, before it came to rest on the floor.
It was a metallic object, about 4 inches by 6 inches that authorities are calling a possible meteorite, which is debris from a comet or asteroid in space.
The family says no one was inside the house at the time of impact.
Christine's sister, Suzy Kop, was the one who found the strange rock and picked it up.
"It was warm. It definitely was warm. Again I just thought it was a random rock from outside. Why would it be in the bedroom?" said Kop.
Not knowing what else to do they called police, who called in other agencies to test the object for radiation.
Once it was deemed safe, they reached out to an expert.
"I got a message from a colleague saying the Hopewell PD was going to call me. And I was like - why?" laughed geophysicist Shannon Graham, PhD at The College of New Jersey.
She said that based on the photos and descriptions, the object seems consistent with a meteorite.
"He also described what it did to the house and I was like, 'Well that came in very quickly,'" Graham said.
She says tests on the density and material would tell them more.
"We have a scanning electron microscope on campus," said Graham. "It'll tell us the chemistry of it and that can tell us Earth-made metal or metal from space."
Police say this could possibly be related to a weeks-long meteor shower called Eta Aquarids that is active right now.
The scientists we spoke with say if it is a meteorite, this is very rare, especially for something this big to come through the atmosphere.
The family says for now they're keeping the object in a safe and undisclosed location.
