Start Of An Adventure: Experts Prepare To Study Possible Meteorite That Hit Mercer Home

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — A team of experts from the Physics Department at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) will be analyzing the object that crashed through the roof of a Hopewell Township home.

The metallic object, believed to be a meteorite, struck the ranch-style home in Hopewell Township on Monday afternoon, police said. More: Possible Meteorite Strikes Mercer County Home: Police

Lt. Louis Vastola of the Hopewell Township Police Department told Patch he had personally contacted various agencies and institutions for help in analyzing the object, but received “no response” or interest.

It was then that he contacted Prof. Shannon Graham from TCNJ who stepped in to help the police department and the family.

“After we determined that there was so crime and safety concern, we handed the object back to the family. Before that, the Trenton Hazmat team checked the object to make sure it was safe,” Vastola said. “Our involvement in the matter is now over.”

On Monday, Vastola described the object to Graham over the phone, who was able to make an early assessment that it could be a possible meteorite.

“I think it's good lines of evidence that something fell from space, and came to earth. As for the actual composition of the object, we need to analyze it to definitely say if it’s a meteorite. But from all appearances, it certainly sounds like that,” Graham told Patch.

The professor said the family is expected to bring the object to campus on Wednesday.

“We will take some pictures, and then our plan is to take a look at it under the electron microscope. That will help tell us the composition of the object and help answer the question of what it actually is,” Graham explained.

To get a preliminary answer, the object will be analyzed under an electron microscope for around two minutes. Then there are other tests that the object can be subject to, Graham said.

The professor said the aim of the department was to help the family "take first steps” to figure out what they want to do with the object.

“It depends on what the homeowner wants to do with the object after the preliminary finding. They can go to a museum to have further testing done, which is outside the scope of our department. We can also reach out to the American Natural History Museum or any place that could help them find answers. But that would be their decision,” Graham said.

The incident has captured the imagination of residents, and rightfully so, as Graham says it’s a "once-in-a-generation kind of event.”

Professors from the department looked at statistics on Tuesday and found that the frequency of a space object of that size, hitting the Earth is about 4,000 or so per year. The likelihood of one of those hitting land would be about 1,000 per year. And the possibility of one hitting a populated area is even rarer.

“The Earth is just an object in space. Sometimes we can have the gravitational field pull things that are flying through space. There was a meteor shower recently, so it could be something from that,” Graham said.

“It’s rare for such things to hit Earth and they're typically small. Most days they just burn up in the Earth's atmosphere and don't make it to the ground at all.”

The team from TCNJ will continue their investigation and are expected to have a preliminary answer soon.

“I'm excited about the subject and trying to figure out where it came from,” Graham said. “This is just the beginning of the adventure.”

On Monday, around 1 p.m. the object struck the ranch-style home on Old Washington Crossing Pennington Road. Although the home was occupied at the time, no injuries were reported, police said. The object is approximately 4"x 6" and is oblong in shape. It hit the roof, the ceiling and then fell on the hardwood floor, police said.

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