The odds of getting hit by a meteorite are roughly one in several trillion. Andrew Melville-Smith and his Tesla might have just won that unfortunate lotto.
The South Australian veterinarian was driving his Tesla along the Augusta Highway when something slammed into his windshield with enough force to make the glass ripple. “I thought we’d crashed, it was that loud, it was that violent, it was totally unexpected,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The impact left the glass warped and cracked as if it had melted. His car, still cruising in autopilot, kept going like nothing had happened.
Melville-Smith reported the strike to the South Australian Museum, which is now trying to figure out whether the projectile came from space, a plane, or the ground. If it turns out to be a meteorite, scientists say it could be the first confirmed case of a moving vehicle being hit by one.
Did a Meteorite Crash Into This Tesla?
Mineralogist Kieran Meaney, who’s leading the investigation, said the melted glass was especially strange. “There was a lot of heat in whatever hit the windscreen,” he told the ABC News. That kind of damage suggests enormous kinetic energy on impact—something more than a random rock kicked up from the road.
Space dust constantly rains down on Earth, about 5,200 tons every year, though most of it’s microscopic. Bigger pieces usually burn up before they ever hit the ground. The odds of one surviving reentry, staying intact, and hitting a car in motion are close to zero. Which makes this case, if confirmed, something of a cosmic bullseye.
Scientists will start by examining the windshield for any embedded fragments. If they find material consistent with a meteorite, the next step is a field search for whatever’s left of the rock itself. Meaney said the museum is keeping an open mind. “It may be the case once we investigate further, we find out it’s something different, but at the moment, a meteorite is the theory we are working with.”
If the object really came from beyond Earth, Melville-Smith might be the first person to ever drive through a meteor strike. If not, he still has a story no one can top.
The post A Mystery Object Smashed Into a Tesla. Was It a Meteorite? appeared first on VICE.
