An unusual incident occurred in Australia when a man”s Tesla was struck by what may be a meteorite while he was driving on a highway. Andrew Melville-Smith, a veterinarian from Whyalla in South Australia, reported to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the object hit his windscreen with tremendous force, causing the glass to appear to soften and partially melt, with cracks radiating from the impact point.
At the time of the incident, the car was operating in Autopilot mode, continuing to drive as if nothing had happened. “I thought we”d crashed, it was that loud, it was that violent, it was totally unexpected,” Melville-Smith stated during his interview. “The car was driving along and unconcerned … it wasn”t aware of the chaos that was going on in the cabin.”
The incident has been reported to the South Australian Museum, which is now investigating the nature of the object. If it is confirmed to be a meteorite, this could mark the first recorded case of a meteorite colliding with a moving vehicle. Scientists note that while material from space falls to Earth at an average rate of approximately 5,200 tons annually, most of this consists of microscopic dust that goes unnoticed.
Large meteorites are much less common, as they typically burn up or disintegrate during their atmospheric entry. Witnessing a meteorite strike is extremely rare, and being hit by one is even more unusual. The museum plans to start its investigation by examining the damaged windscreen for any embedded particles that may provide clues about the object”s origin.
“The really unusual thing is that the glass of his windscreen has actually melted a little bit; there was a lot of heat in whatever hit the windscreen,” said Kieran Meaney, a mineralogist at the South Australian Museum. Experts generally believe that meteorites are cold upon landing, as the heat generated during their atmospheric descent primarily affects the outer layer of the object without transferring significant heat to the interior.
Nevertheless, the way the windscreen was damaged suggests that the object may have been moving at a high velocity, converting kinetic energy into thermal energy upon impact. Other possibilities for the object”s origin include space debris, items falling from aircraft, or even a typical terrestrial rock.
“It may be the case once we investigate further, we find out it”s something different, but at the moment the theory we are working with,” Meaney elaborated. “If we do find out that it is a meteorite, we will probably end up going out to where this happened and trying to find the bit of rock.”
