On July 16, 2024 a daytime meteor shook New York City with a sonic boom as it passed just south of the Statue of Liberty. A short time later, a more than two-pound meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in Hillsborough, New Jersey. The rock, the size of a heavy airline bag, entered the atmosphere at 32,000 miles/h and broke apart over the area. Only one fragment was recovered after it struck a home, and the homeowner preserved the scene with disposable gloves and aluminum foil.

Forensic analysis revealed the meteorite is a CM1/2 carbonaceous chondrite, an intermediate type between the typical CM2 and rare CM1 forms. It contains fragments more extensively altered by water than usual, with a high concentration of salts from the asteroid's near‑surface brine deposits. This is only the second witnessed fall of a CM1/2 chondrite, after the Kolang meteorite of 2020.

The salty brines may have created molecules essential to life, allowing phosphate to stay in solution and catalyzing reactions between organics and minerals. The Hillsborough sample holds 1.8% carbon and 0.07% nitrogen, with isotopes typical of CM types, and includes amino acids and other soluble organic compounds that likely formed within the parent body.

Researchers plan to identify the salt minerals and compare them with samples returned from Ryugu and Bennu. Some fragments will be curated at the American Museum of Natural History, where scientists say the find is a precious reminder that nature delivered a pristine asteroid sample to Earth’s doorstep.