Astronomy
Peekskill meteorite: The space rock that hit a Chevy Malibu
On Oct. 9, 1992, a bowling-ball-sized meteorite crashed through a parked car in New York after thousands watched it streak across the sky.
On Oct. 9, 1992, a space rock the size of a bowling ball fell from the sky and punched a hole through the trunk of a Chevrolet Malibu in Peekskill, New York. The car belonged to 18-year-old Michelle Knapp, who heard what she thought was a car crash outside her home. When she went to check, she found the smoking-hot meteorite lying under the damaged trunk.
Knapp had bought the car for $300. After the meteorite hit, she sold it for $10,000.
The meteor that produced the meteorite was visible across the U.S. East Coast, from Kentucky to New York. It appeared as a "fragmenting fireball" around 7:50 p.m. EDT, according to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. The rock weighed 12.37 kilograms and pierced the right rear edge of the trunk, leaving a dent in the driveway below. It struck the car at about 179 mph.
Because so many people filmed the fireball — including spectators at Friday night high school football games who turned their cameras skyward — scientists could track the meteor's path through the atmosphere and calculate its orbit around the Sun. The Peekskill meteorite is only the fourth recovered meteorite with detailed trajectory data.
Today, a large piece of the meteorite is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A slice sold for $4,375 at a Christie's auction in 2021. Even Knapp's car has its own website and occasionally goes on display.
It's rare to see a meteorite hit something on the ground, let alone a parked car. The Peekskill event remains one of the best-documented meteorite falls in history, thanks to the film and photo coverage that captured it from start to finish.
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