New Jersey’s History With Meteor Strikes and Fireballs

New Jersey is buzzing about a recent meteor that caused a fireball over the Garden State. We're no strangers to meteor damage in our state.

Meteor Impact That Caused Damage In New Jersey

We checked the records and found a couple of times that a meteor caused property damage in New Jersey, and one of them wasn't that long ago.

We only have to travel back to 2023 to find the story of a home in Titusville that was pierced by a meteorite, ripping through the roof of the home, breaking the ceiling, and denting the hardwood floor.

The incident happened on May 8th of that year. The rock was approximately mango-sized, and according to Sky & The Telescope, it was from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.

The Montclair Meteor Incident

On September 29, 1938, a meteorite tore through a garage roof, and it got embedded in the seat of a 1928 Pontiac Coupe that was in the garage.

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You may find reports claiming the incident occurred in Montclair, New Jersey, but it actually happened in Illinois.

According to Earth Date, approximately 17,000 meteorites make it through Earth's atmosphere each year, but human impact is extremely rare.

The Woman Who Was Struck By A Meteor

The only confirmed case of a human being struck by a meteorite, according to Smithsonian Magazine, happened in 1954, when Alabama resident Ann Hodges was lying on her couch when a 9-pound meteorite tore through her roof, bounced off a radio, and struck her thigh, leaving a deep bruise.

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So, while the meteor and fireball sighting over New Jersey this week was very exciting and a little scary,  it was far from unprecedented.