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NASA scientists say a meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey home in two years ago may help them unlock clues to what made life possible throughout the solar system.
The meteorite was dubbed Hillsborough for the township where it crash-landed the afternoon of July 16, 2024. The rock broke through the roof of a New Jersey home, crashing into a bedroom where it was found by the homeowner.
Scientists have praised the homeowner for his quick, scientifically sound actions that day, which not only protected the rocks but also kept them remarkably well preserved.
He used gloves to grab the pieces, wrapped them in tin foil, and put them into empty jars. This kept them free of contamination and allowed scientists to study fragile minerals and organic compounds rarely seen in recovered meteorites.
The rocks were classified as CM carbonaceous chondrites, a class of carbon-rich meteorites known to contain some of the oldest materials in the solar system, according to a news release from the SETI Institute.
The rocks were also given the rare classification CM1/2, a category between 1 and 2, making them only the second meteorite of this type observed on Earth. CM1 meteorites typically come from asteroids with water, while CM2 typically comes from asteroids that haven’t been significantly altered by water — and this one didn’t fit into either category.
In the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, the rocks were found to contain organic compounds, minerals and amino acids, which serve as the fundamental building blocks of all living things.
“It’s just more proof that the chemical building blocks of life could have been delivered — and are still being delivered — to Earth today by these carbonaceous asteroid fragments,” said Danny Glavin, senior scientist in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and co-author of the study.
Scientists also found small, salty fragments, leading them to believe it came from near the surface of its parent asteroid, where liquid evaporated, leaving an accumulation of salt. This is important because researchers believe such a brine could ignite the chemical reactions that give rise to life.
NASA says that as researchers continue to study the Hillsborough meteorite, they will learn new details about how water transformed primitive asteroids and shaped the early solar system.
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