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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Home Gets Hit With Suspected Meteorite

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- When Dee Riddle heard breaking glass inside her central Illinois home on Monday morning, she first thought a bathroom mirror had shattered. But what had broken was a bedroom window and what had caused it to break was an object that had fallen from space, scientists called in to investigate concluded.

The small metallic object found near the window was most likely a meteorite, said Robert "Skip" Nelson, a geology professor at Illinois State University.

"In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the real thing," he told the (Bloomington) Pantagraph.

The last confirmed meteorite to strike Bloomington was in the '30s, he said.

The grayish object -- about the size of a deck of cards -- was less likely to have come from a satellite or spacecraft, said Nelson and other experts, who also ruled out that it was thrown by someone standing outside the house.

It also crashed through a computer desk when it struck around 9:30 a.m., Riddle said.

"We were just lucky no one was sitting at the computer when it happened," she said.

The United State Geological Survey's meteorite center in Flagstaff, Ariz. also would take part in trying to positively identify the object, Nelson said.

Source: www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-meteorite-hits-home,1,3509471.story?coll=chi-news-hed

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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Meteorite smashes through bedroom window

An object that smashed through a window on its way to landing in a home in Bloomington, Illinois, is likely to be a meteorite, experts say.

The greyish, metallic object, which is about the size of a deck of cards, crashed into a computer table in the home of a surprised Dee Riddle.

She said she came to investigate after she heard something smash through a bedroom window on Monday morning.

Intrigued scientists from nearby Illinois State University said it was likely to be a meteorite.

"In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the real thing," said Robert Nelson, a geology professor at ISU.

The last confirmed meteorite to strike Bloomington was in the 1930s, he said.

Nelson and other experts ruled out the possibility that it had been thrown by someone near the house, and they said it was not likely to have been space junk from a satellite or spacecraft.

The US Geological Survey's meteorite centre in Flagstaff, Arizona, will help in trying to identify the object, Nelson said.

"We were just lucky no one was sitting at the computer when it happened," she said.

Source: www.dailyastronomy.com/story.asp?ID=176313&Title=Meteorite%20smashes%20through%20bedroom%20window

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I think the occurance of large meteorites smashing into the Earth presently is abnormal. Perhaps something to come?