Police: Possible meteorite strikes home in Hopewell Township, New Jersey
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- A metallic object believed to be a meteorite struck the roof of a home Monday in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, police said.
The incident happened at a home located on Old Washington Crossing Pennington Road just after 1 p.m.
Police said no injuries were reported.
Authorities said the object is about 4 inches by 6 inches. It's an oblong shape and appears metallic, according to police.
The family who owns the home says the call to the non-emergency line was an interesting one as they tried to explain something that fell from the sky.
They say they are grateful no one was injured and are now left with a gift from space.
"It appears whatever came from the sky fell through the roof of the top window that's my dad's bedroom," Suzy Kop said.
At first, she says she thought someone threw a rock until she realized it was more than that.
"We are thinking it's a meteorite, came through here, hit the floor here because that's completely damaged, it ricocheted up to this part of the ceiling and then finally rested on the floor there," Kop said.
Kop says no one was home at the time. As she stepped around the debris and sheetrock, she found the rock in the corner.
"I did touch the thing because it thought it was a random rock, I don't know, and it was warm," Kop said.
Derrick Pitts, the chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute, says it could be four to five billion years old, left over from the beginning of the solar system.
"It's been running around in space all that time and now it's come to Earth and fell in their laps," Pitts said. "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."
Kop says emergency responders came and checked on her and her family.
"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.
"I thank God that my father was not here, no one was here, we weren't hurt or anything," she added.
The possible meteorite might be related to a current meteor shower called the Eta Aquariids, police said.
The incident is under investigation.