The four-pound metal object that crashed into a New Jersey home has been confirmed as a meteorite.

US media reported that a possible object that can be considered a A meteorite crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home earlier this week, causing damage to the wood floor and ceiling after landing in a second-floor room.

The black stone weighing about 4 pounds was found in a corner of the room, still warm from its intergalactic journey. Hazmat agents arrived on the scene to ensure there was no exposure to radioactive material.

There were no injuries and only minimal damage to the home, said Suzy Kop, the home’s owner, who believed someone had thrown a rock into an upstairs room.

Nate Magee, of the College of New Jersey, in nearby Ewing, analyzed it and confirmed it was a space rock, the CBS website.

“Likely it is type LL-6, meaning it contains less iron than most chondrite meteorites, and has been greatly altered by intense heat even before entering Earth’s atmosphere,” the school said. The family was initially shocked by the rock crashing from space. “We think it’s a meteor, it went through here, it hit the floor here because it was completely damaged, it bounced up to this part of the ceiling and eventually hit the floor,” Kop said.

“I touched the thing because I thought it was a rock thrown by someone, I don’t know, and it was hot.” Kop said hazardous materials officials came to her house because they were concerned that she and her family had been exposed to radioactive material, but all those tests came back negative. Kop said she was glad no one was home when it happened.

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute, said the rock could be four to five billion years old. “It’s been hanging out in space all this time and now it’s come to Earth as usual in open fields, but for it to actually hit a house and people can pick it up, that’s really unusual.” It has happened very few times in history,” he said.

NASA, the US space agency, has reported that anyone who believes they have found a meteorite should contact the Smithsonian Institution. “Although meteorites tend to hit Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, they slow down as they travel through the atmosphere and break up into small fragments before hitting the ground,” NASA said.

“Meteors cool quickly and generally pose no risk to the public.”

remains of halley

Meteors are fragments of asteroids that have broken off and once they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, they become meteorites. An asteroid the size of Mount Everest is the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs.

It is estimated that this meteorite contains remnants of Comet Halley which can be observed as the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. This meteor shower starts around April 19 and lasts until May 28, but there are days with more activity, such as last weekend of May 6 and 7.

Officially named 1P/Halley, Halley is a large, bright comet that orbits the Sun every 75 years on average.