New Jersey meteorite contains amino acids, building blocks of life, scientists say
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Scientists say a meteorite that crashed onto the roof of a New Jersey house two years ago contains some of the building blocks of life and is among the rarest space rocks ever recovered.
The meteorite crashed into Hillsborough, New Jersey, on July 16, 2024, and is the subject of a recent study published July 15 in the journal Science Advances — just shy of its second anniversary on Earth.
That’s when the homeowner heard a “loud crash” and found a hole in the ceiling “covering the bed, carpet, and surrounding areas,” according to a statement from the SETI Institute, a private research organization based in Mountain View, California.
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“I smelled a strong sulfur-like odor and saw numerous black fragments,” the host told scientists and researchers at SETI and NASA.
Although there was damage to property at the time, no one was injured.
Scientists say the Hillsborough meteorite contains some of the chemical building blocks of life and is among the rarest meteorites ever recovered. (SETI Institute via SWNS)
“The meteorite was broken into many pieces, including dust, and there was a strong odor similar to sulfur in the air,” the report said.
The researchers identified it as CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite, a rare intermediate; one of only two meteorite falls of this subtype witnessed.
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“Our cameras in Northford, Connecticut, and Douglassville, Pennsylvania, as well as a doorbell camera in Wayne, New Jersey, captured the meteor, and from that we measured its trajectory. … The path was followed low in the asteroid belt,” Mike Hankey, director of operations for the American Meteor Society, said in a SETI Institute statement.
NASA said the meteorite preserved some of the oldest material in the solar system and recorded chemical processes that occurred more than 4.5 billion years ago.
Fox News Digital has reached out to NASA for additional comment.
The Hillsborough meteorite damaged a home in New Jersey before researchers identified it as one of the rarest meteorites ever recovered. (SETI Institute via SWNS)
In a July 15 statement, NASA said an amateur astronomer immediately noticed a meteorite had just crashed onto his property in New Jersey, then collected the fragments with gloves and stored the samples in aluminum foil and glass containers to preserve them.
This turned out to be very important for the research project. NASA said the rock helped scientists “discover new clues about ancient water, the chemical evolution of primitive asteroids, and components that may have helped make life possible throughout the early solar system.”
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The significant meteorite is called the Hillsborough meteorite, and understanding its origin requires “expertise from multiple scientific disciplines,” the agency added.
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One of the biggest surprises was the complexity of the amino acids and organic compounds in the meteorite, said Danny Glavin, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory and co-author of the study.
A Hillsborough house became an unexpected scientific landmark after a rare meteorite crashed into its roof in 2024. (SETI Institute via SWNS)
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, while organic compounds are carbon-based molecules thought to be essential for life.
“This is evidence that the chemical building blocks of life may have been, and still are, brought to Earth today by these carbonaceous asteroid fragments,” Glavin said in a statement.
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Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer at NASA’s Ames Research Center and co-author of the study, said the team’s analyzes of the asteroid’s orbit, mineral composition and organic chemistry helped scientists better understand primitive asteroids.
Researchers identified a rare intermediate CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite after the Hillsborough meteorite hit a house in New Jersey. (SETI Institute via SWNS)
The research allowed scientists to “create one of the clearest pictures ever of how primitive asteroids like Asteroid Erigone evolved chemically over billions of years,” he said.
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“Once we have both a documented fireball and a rapid recovery of the meteorite, we can learn not only what the rock is made of, but also where it came from in the asteroid belt,” Jenniskens added.
