A meteorite that punched through the roof of a New Jersey home two years ago has been found to contain hundreds of extraterrestrial amino acids, including many that do not exist naturally on Earth, according to a study published Wednesday [1].
The rock, a rare carbonaceous chondrite classified as CM-type, tore through the ceiling of a Hillsborough residence on July 16, 2024 after a daytime fireball streaked across the skies above New York City at roughly 32,000 miles per hour. The homeowner, who was working in a nearby office at the time, found black fragments scattered across his bed. He and his wife immediately collected the material using aluminum foil and glass jars and patched the roof before rain could contaminate the sample, a decisively quick response that scientists say made the analysis possible.
"The majority of amino acids detected in Hillsborough are rare or nonexistent in life on Earth, so they are truly extraterrestrial in origin," said Dr. Danny Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, a coauthor of the study.
Researchers classified the meteorite as CM-1/2, an intermediate type that has only been witnessed falling once before. The fragments also contained high concentrations of sodium salts left behind by evaporated brines on the parent asteroid, suggesting that liquid water once percolated through the rock for extended periods. The samples are now curated at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.