Peekskill, 1992: the car that was hit
Filmed by dozens, and it landed on a Chevy.
On the evening of Friday 9 October 1992, a fireball streaked for more than 40 seconds across the eastern United States. It was filmed by at least 16 people, many of them parents with video cameras at high-school football games, making it one of the best-recorded falls ever.
In Peekskill, New York, 18-year-old Michelle Knapp heard a crash outside and found the back of her red 1980 Chevrolet Malibu smashed, with a warm stone underneath. It weighed about 12.4 kg.
The films let scientists work out the meteoroid's orbit. The stone is an H6 ordinary chondrite, and the car itself toured museums around the world.
In the catalogue
- Peekskill H6, United States, 1992 · 12.57 kg