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Meteorite Crashes Through Houston Home After Airburst Over City

NASA calls the recent U.S. fireballs isolated events with low risk.

Overview

  • The Houston meteorite, which struck a suburban home Saturday, punched through an upstairs roof and left the family unharmed.
  • NASA measured a roughly one-ton object entering at about 35,000 miles per hour and breaking up over north Houston with energy near 26 tons of TNT.
  • Data place the track beginning near Stagecoach and the breakup over the Bammel area, which produced loud sonic booms heard across the city.
  • A Rice University planetary scientist examined the recovered piece and confirmed it is extraterrestrial, describing a golf-ball-size rock that feels unusually heavy.
  • The Texas airburst sat between a March 17 fireball over OhioPennsylvania and a March 22 sighting over Chowchilla, California, which NASA says were unrelated routine entries.