[meteorite-list] Metallic mystery object plunges through roof

From: Michael Groetz <mpg4444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:55:49 -0400
Message-ID: <ad733151003290455k38d1638cm95a1f30ca89a4398_at_mail.gmail.com>

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/metallic-mystery-object-plunges-through-roof/article734095/

Metallic mystery object plunges through roof

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, N.J. ? Associated Press
Published on Wednesday, Jan. 03, 2007 4:48PM EST

Last updated on Friday, Apr. 03, 2009 9:58AM EDT


.A metal, rock-like object about the size of a golf ball and weighing
nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through the roof of a Monmouth
County home, and authorities on Wednesday were trying to figure out
what it was.

Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing about 370 grams,
crashed into the home Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the
scene said it was not from an aircraft.

Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had
punched a hole in the roof of a single-family home and damaged tiles
on a bathroom floor below.

The object was heavier than a usual metal object of that size, said
police Lt. Robert Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was
detected.

Lt. Brightman would not immediately disclose the address or the names
of the people who lived at the home, other than to say that a couple
and their adult son live there. He said a man who lived at the home
found the object at about 9 p.m. Tuesday after returning from work and
hearing from his mother that something had crashed through the roof a
few hours before.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which sent investigators to the
town, did not know where the object came from, said spokeswoman Arlene
Murray.

?It's definitely not an aircraft part,? she said. ?I can't speak
beyond that as to what it might be.?

Approximately 20 to 50 rock-like objects fall every day over the
entire planet, said Carlton Pryor, a professor of astronomy at Rutgers
University.

?It's not all that uncommon to have rocks rain down from heaven,? said
Prof. Pryor, who had not seen the object that struck the Monmouth
County home. ?These are usually rocky or a mixture of rock and metal.?

Prof. Pryor said laboratory tests would have to be conducted to
determine if the object were a meteorite.
Received on Mon 29 Mar 2010 07:55:49 AM PDT