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A meteorite that crashed through a Somerset County home in 2024 is helping scientists unlock new clues about the origins of our solar system.
Named Hillsborough after the township where it landed, the meteorite is yielding new discoveries about the chemistry of the early solar system, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Lead author Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer at the SETI Institute and a NASA researcher, said the meteorite preserved evidence of processes not previously known from this type of early planetary body.
“A forensic study of the fragments revealed that they contained preserved bits from near the surface of a small primitive asteroid where it experienced concentrated salty fluids—a process not previously known from this type of proto planet world,” Jenniskens said.
The findings stem from a meteorite that streaked across the East Coast on July 16, 2024. A daytime fireball accompanied by a sonic boom was observed in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
American Meteor Society operations manager Mike Hankey said that its cameras in Northford, Connecticut, Douglassville, Pennsylvania, as well as a doorbell camera in Wayne, New Jersey, captured the meteor and allowed its trajectory to be measured.
“The path traced back to low in the asteroid belt,” he told SETI.
The two-pound meteorite, traveling at 32,000 miles per hour, pierced the roof of a Hillsborough residence, the SETI Institute said.
It crashed into the primary bedroom and broke apart on impact, scattering black, dusty matter across the furniture.
The homeowner then carefully documented and preserved the scene, using disposable gloves and aluminum foil to collect meteorite fragments and store them in glass jars, according to SETI.
Some of those fragments will be curated at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, according to the SETI Institute.
“We are thrilled that nature delivered such a precious asteroid sample on our doorstep,” Denton Ebel, the museum’s curator of meteorites, said on the institute’s website.
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