Meteorite that crashed into NJ home holds building blocks of life, scientists say

Scientists say the Hillsborough meteorite contains some of the chemical building blocks of life and ranks among the rarest meteorites ever recovered.(SETI Institute via SWNS)

“The meteorite had broken into many fragments, including dust, and a strong sulfur-like odor was present in the 122 air,” said the report.

Researchers identified it as a rare intermediate CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite, one of only two witnessed meteorite falls of that subtype.

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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 traced back to low in the asteroid belt,” said Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, in a SETI Institute statement.

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NASA said the meteorite preserves some of the oldest material in the solar system, recording chemical processes that occurred more than4.5 billion years ago.

The Hillsborough meteorite damaged a New Jersey home before researchers identified it as one of the rarest meteorites ever recovered.(SETI Institute via SWNS)

In a July 15 release, NASA said an amateur astronomer quickly recognized that a freshly fallen meteorite had landed on his New Jersey property — then collected the fragments with gloves and stored them in aluminum foil and glass containers to preserve the samples.

That proved to be crucial to the research project.The rock is helping scientists “uncover new clues aboutancient water, the chemical evolution of primitive asteroids, and the ingredients that may have helped make life possible throughout the early solar system,” NASA said.

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The significant meteorite was dubbedthe Hillsborough meteorite, and understanding its origins required “expertise from multiple scientific disciplines,” added the agency.

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Danny Glavin, a senior scientist in the Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author of the study, said one of thebiggest surpriseswas the complexity of the amino acids in the meteorite, as well as its organic compounds.

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The Hillsborough home became an unexpected scientific landmark after a rare meteorite crashed through its roof in 2024.(SETI Institute via SWNS)

Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, while organic compounds are carbon-based molecules considered essential to life.

“It’s just more proof that the chemicalbuilding blocks of lifecould have been delivered — and are still being delivered — to Earth today by these carbonaceous asteroid fragments,” Glavin said in a release.

Peter Jenniskens, meteor astronomer at both NASA’s Ames Research Center and a study co-author, said that the team’s analysis of the meteorite’s trajectory, mineral composition andorganic chemistryare helping scientists better understand primitive asteroids.

Researchers identified the Hillsborough meteorite as a rare intermediate CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite after it crashed through a New Jersey home.(SETI Institute via SWNS)

The research enables scientists to “build one of the clearest pictures yet of how primitive asteroids such as the asteroid Erigone evolved chemically over billions of years,” he said.

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“When we have both a documented fireball and a quick recovery of its meteorite, we can learn not only what the rock is made of, but where it came from in the asteroid belt,” added Jenniskens.