Meteorite Crashes Through Roof of a House in Connecticut

By Nancy Atkinson - April 24, 2013 12:28 AM UTC | Planetary Science

A rock that crashed through a house in Connecticut last weekend has been confirmed to be a meteorite.

Homeowner Larry Beck called police in Wolcott, CT at 10:30 a.m. on April 20, 2013 and said a baseball-sized rock crashed through his home the night before, causing damage to his roof and pipes in the attic before cracking the ceiling in his kitchen. Police reported that people from several towns in the area had called to report a loud boom that rattled windows last Friday evening.

Reports say that at first, police thought the rock was a broken piece of airport runway concrete that had dropped from a plane when landing gear was being lowered. The home is near two airports.

After examining the object on Tuesday, Stefan Nicolescu, the collections manager for the Mineralogy Division at the Yale Peabody Museum confirmed it was in fact a meteorite, likely a chondrite.

Here's a news report from an

NBC station in Connecticut

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View more videos at: http://nbcconnecticut.com.

Source:

NBC Connecticut

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com