I see a lot of “meteorite hits X” stories here at Bad Astronomy Central, and the vast majority turn out to be wrong. However, few ever turn out to be the real thing, it looks this time we have the real thing.
Actually, this story is similar to the last real one (in which a metallic meteorite hit a house in New Jersey), except this time it was in Indiana. The object crashed through a window at a steep angle and high speed (60 milers per hour or 100 kph), and is somewhat smaller than a fist. It looks like a meteorite to me, but one picture isn’t enough to tell. You really need to analyze it and see what it’s made of; a high concentration of iridium, for example, is a clincher. That’s very rare to find on Earth, but it’s common in metallic meteorites.
This article at WJBC has a great image that shows the meteorite and the damage it did. After crashing through the window, it hit a computer desk and punched a hole clean through it. Meteorites don’t hit all that fast, but an object made of nearly pure iron moving at 100 kph will do some serious damage.
Follow up on these stories never happens in the press. I’ll try to remember to email some of the experts named in the articles to see if they have more info in a few days.
Man. I’d love to have this happen to me (as long as it misses my family and my computer. And my TV). Meteorites with known, witnessed falls – and that hit a familiar object – fetch a fair price. But I probably wouldn’t even sell it! It would be the centerpiece of my meteorite collection, in fact. Too cool.
