Meteorite smashes through blokes roof as ‘alien’ probe launched

A bloke was rudely awakened by a rock smashing through his roof after flying from outer space at 6.30 in the morning, leaving a gaping hole. Now his damaged roof is going on display at a museum

A stunned homeowner got a rude awakening when a meteorite smashed through the roof of his house. A fragment of the space rock pierced the roof as it fragmented when it fell to earth.

The celestial body was seen around 6.30am on October 27 in the Novgorod Region of Russia. One of the fragments fell onto a private residence in the Okulovsky District, scientists said.

Locals were left stunned by the site of a massive bright fireball with a long greenish tail flying through the early morning skies. It was then followed by explosions. It was initially mistaken for space debris.

But researchers at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GEOKHI) discovered it was a fragment of a large meteor that had entered our atmosphere and not completely burned up in its dense layers.

The meteor exploded and broke into numerous small pieces while still in the air, they said. After traveling to the impact site, researchers Konstantin Ryazantsev and Dmitry Sadilenko found the first samples of the extraterrestrial stone.

Speaking on Saturday, they said it turned out one of the rather large fragments of the celestial body didn’t require much searching as it had fallen on the roof of a house, leaving a gaping hole.

After arriving at the crash site, scientists inspected the “alien arrival” and confirmed its celestial origin, Russian outlet MK reports. Due to the unique nature of the event, the decision was made to remove the damaged roof fragment for future display.

Preliminary studies conducted at the GEOKHI RAS laboratory under the direction of Kirill Lorenz showed that the incoming meteorite most likely belongs to the LL6 group of ordinary stony meteorites, known as chondrites.

The LL6 group is a group of meteorites with low iron content, and the number 6 denotes the degree of alteration of the material on the asteroid’s parent body.

Researcher Viktor Grokhovsky told local media: “It can be argued that the find is of extraterrestrial origin based on external signs. It can be seen from the stone that it has been lying on the ground for only a few days, as they rust over time. We have already analysed it and determined the type — an ordinary chondrite with a low metal content.”

The rock will now go on display to visitor at the Museum of the History of the Universe in Dedovsk, where the damaged section of the roof and other meteorite samples will also be on view.

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