The meteorite in which extraterrestrial chemicals were discovered. [SETI Institute]
The meteorite in which extraterrestrial chemicals were discovered. [SETI Institute]

Extraterrestrial chemicals have been found in a meteorite that crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home last year and landed in a bedroom.

According to the SETI Institute, the meteorite tore through the atmosphere on July 16, 2024, traveling at 32,000 miles per hour (about 50,000 kilometers per hour), and grazed past the Statue of Liberty before striking the ground.

The fireball was witnessed by 60 people across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. It broke apart over Staten Island and New Jersey, scattering fragments like gravel, before a 0.9-kilogram piece punched through the ceiling of a home in Hillsborough and embedded itself in the floor.

As the meteorite disintegrated, it also produced a sonic boom.

[SETI Institute]
[SETI Institute]

The homeowner said he heard a loud noise while inside and discovered a hole in the master bedroom ceiling. "There was a strong smell of sulfur, and I saw black debris and dust covering the bed, carpet and surrounding area," he said.

The meteorite was named "Hillsborough" after the town where it fell.

On the same day, the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances published a paper arguing the meteorite could offer a window into the origins of life. Researchers found highly saline fluid preserved in a fragment from near the surface of a primitive asteroid — fluid capable of forming the molecules needed to give rise to life on Earth.

Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer at the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center who led the research, called it "a previously unknown process in this type of primordial planetary world." He added that the homeowner's quick response left the meteorite "the most pristine CM1/2 meteorite known."

Upon finding the meteorite, the homeowner immediately put on disposable gloves, wrapped the fragments in aluminum foil and sealed them in a glass jar to preserve them.

Some pieces of the meteorite are to be housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Meanwhile, meteor sightings have grown more frequent across the United States in recent months. A meteorite was recovered in Ohio on March 17, followed by another that fell in Massachusetts on March 21.


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