4.5 billion year-old Meteorite crashes into New Zealander home
A METEORITE weighing over one kilogramme and travelling at a speed of 500 kilometres per hour (300 miles per hour) has crashed into a house in Auckland, New Zealand.
The grapefruit-sized rock, which hit the building on Saturday, is believed to be 4.5 billion years old and worth several thousands of dollars.
Already the house, owned by Phil and Brenda Archer, is playing host to enthusiasts, experts, collectors and media desperate for more details on the extraterrestrial intruder.
But to the Archers, it's just a lump of rock that's causing more than its fair share of trouble.
The Archers were stunned when the meteorite plummeted through the roof of their Auckland home on Saturday morning.
It meant an insurance headache and an extensive clean-up operation in their lounge.
"We've been inundated with phone calls from overseas and people at the house," said Mr. Archer.
The rock travelled about 700 million kilometres from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe it could have been hurtling 15 kilometres a second when it entered the atmosphere. By the time it arrived at the Archer's household, it would have slowed to a few hundred metres a second.
"It sounded like an explosion and all I could see was dust everywhere," said Mrs. Archer, who was just a few paces away from where the meteorite struck. It crashed through the roof, bounced off the leather couch and hit the ceiling before ricocheting off and coming to land on the lounge floor.
Minutes earlier, the couple's 11-month-old grandson, Luca, had been playing where the rock landed.
"It was hot to touch and we were fairly stunned," Mr. Archer said. "We called the insurance company and within a few hours the house was crawling with scientists." Experts told the Archers to keep the rock in the oven at 100 degrees to dry it. Since then the couple have received calls from around the world. Scientists and collectors are keen to get hold of the meteorite - the ninth found in New Zealand and the first to hit a house.
"It's a very exciting find and a very rare event," said Auckland University lecturer and editor of Meteorite magazine, Joel Schiff. "It is most likely a chip off an asteroid and is older than anything else on Earth."
Dr. Schiff unsuccessfully combed the neighbourhood for other pieces. A slice was to have been taken off the rock yesterday and tested at Auckland University, he said.
The test was likely to confirm it was the most common kind of chondrite meteorite.
Schiff anticipated that collectors were already on their way to New Zealand to try to buy the meteorite. "It would be a real shame if it was taken out of the country because it's a national treasure," he said.
Fresh from talking to scientists and media in Australia, the United States (U.S.) and Europe, the Archers said they had "no idea" what they would do with the meteorite.
"There's been a huge amount of interest but it's just a lump of rock and looks little different to what you could find in a quarry anywhere," Archer said.
