Suspected meteorite impact in New Jersey home turns out to be "space junk"

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: CO-20070512-11289-USA
Date / time: 12/05/2007 04:11:47
Event: Cosmic Event
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of New Jersey
City: Newark
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home earlier this year was not a meteorite after all, but probably a piece of space junk, scientists said Friday. The silvery object was made of a stainless-steel alloy that does not occur in nature and is most likely "orbital debris" - part of a satellite, rocket or some other spacecraft, said Rutgers University geologist Jeremy Delaney. "There's huge amounts of material that have been left by the various space programs of the world," he said. Srinivasan Nageswaran, whose family discovered the object after it crashed through the roof and dented the tile bathroom floor at his home in Freehold Township in January, was disappointed by the news. "That's the nature of science," said the 46-year-old information technology consultant "If the conclusion from the test says it's not a meteorite, then it's not a meteorite. We have to move forward." The object is slightly bigger than a golf ball and about as heavy as a can of soup.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&cid=11289

[dsa]

1. neat! n/t