Cops baffled by mystery object that crashed into home

[madokie]

POSTED: 7:53 a.m. EST, January 4, 2007
Story Highlights• Police: No radioactivity detected
• Golf ball-sized object weighs nearly as much as a can of soup
• It crashed through roof, damaged bathroom tiles, stuck into wall
• FAA: "It's definitely not an aircraft part"


FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- Authorities were trying to identify a mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house in eastern New Jersey.

Nobody was injured when the golf ball-sized object, weighing nearly as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft.

The rough-surfaced object, with a metallic glint, was displayed Wednesday by police.

"There's some great interest in what we have here," said Lt. Robert Brightman. "It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in my career."


http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/70680184/index.html

[Jacobin]

1. couldn't possibly be a meteriorite

:eyes:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. nah, that's too obvious

it must be a message from God.

[havocmom]

26. God shoulda wrapped a note around it before she threw it at us.

By now, any deity worth its salt would have figured we are a pretty dense species.

[madokie]

4. Thats what I thought, wtf

I read about meteriorite's and they can be found about anywhere, not everywhere mind you but not unusual.

[originalpckelly]

22. I know. People are so weird...

you take any ball bearing the size of a golf ball, and it will turn out to be much heavier than a can of soup. It's far more dense than a can of soup is.

[Beelzebud]

30. Meteorites get a blackened fusion crust from re-entry. It's not a meteorite.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

34. yes for rocky meteorites...but not so for metallic

but I am not 100% sure on that...thing looks like a chunk of space-metal to me.

sP

[Beelzebud]

36. I have an iron meteorite on my desk. It's black.

All meteorites get a fusion crust.

Thats why we color the bottom of the space shuttle black. We wouldn't want to repaint it every time.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

38. now that's a new one on me

I thought we just didn't wash it off after the trip...so, are all the meteorites that are show in museums just cleaned up? I mean, why not show them in their original glory...or does the stuff come off really easy and therefor susceptible to erosive activities?

Cool that you have one on the desk...

sP

[Beelzebud]

40. They polish some for display, and if they're really old the crust erodes off.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

42. Fusion crust?

What's fusion crust?

[Beelzebud]

43. Here's a link the explains it all. It's a real term.

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/id/fusioncrust.htm

From the page:
Meteoroids enter the atmosphere at speeds of many miles per second. At those tremendous speeds, the friction of the atmosphere causes the exterior of stony meteoroids to melt. The melted portion is so hot and fluid that it immediately ablates (sloughs off) and new material is melted underneath. A meteoroid can lose most of its mass as it passes through the atmosphere. When it slows down to the point where no melting occurs, the last melt to form cools to make a thin, glassy coating called a fusion crust.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. Alright.

So what, then, if the meteorite is mostly metal (as this one appears to be)? Sure, if it were mostly iron I guess it would oxidize to some degree, forming a crust. But it wouldn't if it were gold. And this object looks an awful lot like a big gold nugget.

[PCIntern]

3. I like the quote wqhere the neighbor says

that he's glad that it didn't hit his house...

American Narcissism at work! "At least it didn't happen to ME!"

[Buzz Clik]

5. Tiger Woods is on vacation. He's got a long drive....

[trumad]

6. An Alien took a crap after eating a Chicago pizza at O'Hare.

[xultar]

9. Buhwawa!

[maine_raptor]

7. Nice to see that even the Aliens have QC problems.

Don't forget that UFOs are just a collection of parts made by the lowest bidder flying in formation.

[bdamomma]

8. they missed if they were aiming for DC

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. It's the start of a trend... Jerry Ford is golfing

from heaven now!

[madokie]

11. Jerry and James hand in hand entering the big tent

[rpgamerd00d]

12. Clearly this is the terrorist attack Pat Robertson was talkin about.

:rofl:

[LiberalEsto]

13. Cheney's got an alibi this time

He was at Ford's funeral.

[IDemo]

14. It's just a weather phenomenon,,,, n/t

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/02/ufo.sighting.ap/index.html

[Buzz Clik]

15. Yeah, it's raining golf-ball sized chunks of metal.

Take an umbrella. And a crash helmet.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Maybe it's part of whatever crashed and burned over Denver?

[originalpckelly]

20. Whah? Did something crash in Denver?

I didn't hear anything about that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. Here's a link to it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2674912

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. wrong spot

[Az]

17. Not a chance it could be freeze dried pooh dropped from a jet in high altitude

Na.... it couldn't be that.

[Norquist Nemesis]

18. Maybe it's the waste cube from the UFO seen over O'Hare

hmmmm...

[originalpckelly]

19. Anyone else thinking a nickel-iron meteorite?

It would seem to me that the great forces and heat of reentry could have compressed the metal.

I've looked at it, it looks pretty much like a meteorite to me.

[originalpckelly]

21. Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows it could be some space junk.

[Buzz Clik]

25. Regardless, it seems unlikely to be a "weather phenomenon"

[Beelzebud]

33. Meteorites have fusion crust.

[roamer65]

27. I suspect a meteor swarm.

There's the Denver report, then this one and I was driving along I-15 between Barstow, CA and San Bernardino, CA on early am of January 1st and saw one heck of a shooting star in the sky.

[hunter]

28. Looks offhand like a chunk of beryllium copper.

Perhaps an old spacecraft gyroscope of some kind?

(edited to add copper -- beryllium alone wouldn't weigh as much as a soup can!)

[TahitiNut]

39. I'd say it's most probably space program debris.

The junk from the various space programs has to be enormous. How many tools and parts have come loose over the years?
:shrug:

[Beelzebud]

41. My Gut tells me it's debris from that Russian rocket that exploded over n. America.

[minerva50]

29. I understand you can make good money selling meteorites

from a documented fall. People can more than pay for their cars or house repairs from selling to a collector.

[Beelzebud]

32. No fusion crust. It isn't a meteorite.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

35. No crust on metal meteorites...

only the rocky ones. There was a guy on the Discovery channel showing the difference the other day. I am no expert, but the guy on the tube claimed to be...

sP

[Beelzebud]

37. Yes there is. I have one right in front of me.

There are only a few types that won't form a crust, but those are rare. I suppose it could be one of them, but it's unlikely.

Mine looks very similar to this:



My guess is that it's a piece from that Russian rocket that blew up over north America last night.

[RB TexLa]

31. How could it be a police concern?

What crime are they investigating?