Meteorite that crashed into New Jersey home contains building blocks of life, astronomers say

A meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey home is now considered one of the most scientifically valuable meteorites ever recovered because it contains the building blocks of life, astronomers say.

On July 16, 2024, a meteorite tore through the roof of a home in Hillsborough, New Jersey, shortly after it shook the New York City area with a sonic boom, according to researchers at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to exploring the origins of life and searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The owner of the house told researchers that he heard a crash and found a hole in the ceiling of the master bedroom. The meteorite had a strong sulfur-like odor and black fragments, debris and dust covered the room.

The meteorite was then preserved by the homeowner using disposable gloves, aluminum foil and glass jars.

"Thanks to the homeowner's quick reaction, these are the most pristine CM1/2 meteorites we know of," Mike Zolensky of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement.

After observation, scientists learned the meteorite was a CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite -- an exceptionally rare and primitive type of meteorite, according to a paper published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

A forensic study of the meteorite's fragments showed they preserved bits of a small, primitive asteroid that had once been soaked in concentrated salty fluids, said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer for NASA and the SETI Institute and lead author of the paper.

A high concentration of salt in briny fluids can create molecules crucial to life on Earth, and scientists said this meteorite contains some of those building blocks of the life.

The "alien world chemistry" found inside Hillsborough, which also contained a diverse suite of carbon-bearing compounds, amino acids and other prebiotic molecules, suggests that these rare types of meteorites may have shaped the organic inventory of the early solar system and brought the materials to Earth that later would support organic life, the astronomers said.

Dubbed "alien world chemistry” by the SETI Institute, the meteorite, called Hillsborough, contains a diverse suite of carbon-bearing compounds, amino acids and other prebiotic molecules. Researchers say this suggests that these rare types of meteorites may have shaped the organic inventory of the early solar system and brought the materials to Earth that later would support organic life.

The meteorite, which was about the size of a heavy airline bag, entered the atmosphere at about 32,000 mph, sending a shockwave through New York and New Jersey. Dozens of observers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania reported seeing the meteor to the American Meteor Society.

American Meteor Society cameras in Northford, Connecticut, and Douglassville, Pennsylvania, captured an image of the meteor, as did a doorbell camera in Wayne, New Jersey, Mike Hankey, operations manager at the AMS, said in a statement.

"The path traced back to low in the asteroid belt," Hankey said.

The fragile rock broke into several pieces, the researchers said. Doppler weather radar at Newark Liberty International Airport detected a long cloud of pebbles falling from Staten Island to New Jersey.