A meteorite that crashed into a house in New Jersey two years ago contains “salty” fluids that may be building blocks of life, say scientists. The space rock, which weighed over two pounds, crashed through the roof of a house in the town of Hillsborough, New Jersey, on July 16, 2024.

Scientific Discovery

Details of a painstaking study of the Hillsborough meteorite led by an international research team, including scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), have now been published in the journal Science Advances. The study found that the meteorite contained preserved bits from near the surface of a primitive asteroid where it experienced concentrated salty fluids – a process not previously known from this type of proto planet world.

The high concentration of salt in briny fluids can potentially create molecules crucial to life on Earth, according to the research team. The team believes that the “alien world” chemistry found inside the space rock can potentially create molecules crucial to life on Earth.

Cosmochemist Queenie Chan, from Royal Holloway University of London, said: “Isotope studies of carbon and nitrogen suggest that primitive carbonaceous chondrites, including CM-types, delivered organic matter to the early Earth.” The meteorite contained a wide variety of soluble organic compounds, and its compositional range confirms that the Hillsborough meteorite was more altered by water than most other CM-type meteorites.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.