When a meteorite mashed a Chevrolet in New York
When Chevrolet’s marketing team described the 1980 Malibu as “a fresh new slice of apple pie,” it was reaching. The really earth-shattering Malibu news came later—and it had nothing to do with apple pie, minor styling alterations, or additional horsepower.
On October 9, 1992, at 7:50 p.m. EDT, 18-year-old Michelle Knapp was watching television in her parents’ home in Peekskill, New York, when she heard a loud, metallic crash. She thought it was a car accident. Scrambling outside, Knapp discovered a hole in the trunk of her red-orange 1980 Malibu sedan. Beneath the hole, embedded in the gravel driveway, was a bowling ball–sized rock that was warm to the touch and smelled like sulfur. Shaped like a football, it was only about a foot in diameter, but it was heavy for its size—about 27 pounds.
Knapp called the Peekskill Police Department, thinking she was the victim of vandals, but a neighbor suggested that no human could throw a rock through a car, especially not one that size. The following day, a curator from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City confirmed what her neighbor and family already suspected: This was no ordinary rock.
Scientists later determined that a meteorite had hurtled to Earth from the inner edge of our solar system’s main asteroid belt, between Jupiter and Mars, traveling through space at a cosmic velocity of 8.8 miles per second (or about 31,600 miles per hour). Slowed by the earth’s atmosphere, the meteorite had began to break up over Kentucky. A shard struck Knapp’s Malibu at 164 mph, barely missing the car’s fuel tank.
Witnesses in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and D.C. described seeing a “huge greenish fireball” streak through the night sky towards Peekskill. Because the meteorite had crashed to earth on a Friday night, while many high-school football fans were taping games on their camcorders—remember, this was long before iPhones—16 different video cameras captured the space rock’s descent (as documented on metoritecar.com).
The video below, which does not have sound, was taken in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, about 335 miles west of Peekskill:
This video was shot in Halifax, Pennsylvania, about 200 miles west of Peekskill:
The amazing story of the meteorite that slammed into a Malibu was reported in newspapers and on television around the world. Knapp, her car, and the rare space rock became instant celebrities.
The teenager, who a year earlier had purchased the Malibu from her grandmother for $400, quickly sold the car to Iris Lang, wife of meteorite collector and dealer Al Lang, for $25,000. (Twenty years later, in 2012, the car’s original title and a rear taillight bulb, which was broken by the meteorite, sold at auction for $5312.)
In addition to selling the car, Knapp received $50,000 for the meteorite from three investors—Jim Schwade, Marlin Cilz, and Ray Meyer—who subsequently cut it into pieces and sold the specimens to museums and collectors for many times that original figure. In 2012, for example, an 83.68-gram (2.95-ounce) piece was auctioned for $16,250, which is about $5500 per ounce. For comparison, gold has a value of $1669 per ounce as of this writing.
While the meteorite’s monetary value is extraordinary, the rock itself is about as mundane as Knapp’s Malibu was prior to October 9, 1992. As far space rocks go, anyway. Technically, the meteorite is an H6 chondrite, which the Lunar and Planetary Institute defines as “an ordinary chondrite from the H group that is petrologic type 6.”
As for the car, it now belongs to Darryl Pitt, founder and curator of the Macovich Collection of Meteorites, which also owns an 890-gram (nearly two-pound) section of the rock itself. In the years since the meteorite and the Malibu met in Peekskill, the car has been on display in numerous museums throughout the world, including New York City’s American Museum of Natural History and France’s National Museum of Natural History.
“Apart from the earth itself,” Pitt told USA Today in 2017, “the Peekskill meteorite car remains the most famous object to be struck by a meteorite.”
Considering that on November 30, 1954, Ann Hodges was hit by a meteorite as she napped on her couch in Sylacauga, Alabama (and lived to tell the tale), Pitt’s opinion may be a little over the top, but he certainly isn’t alone. Chevy marketers also overstated the Malibu’s appeal, and that was 12 years before one was serendipitously hit by a space rock.
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I had a Mazda that was hit by a Meteor once. But although the insurance company totaled my Mazda, that Mercury sedan barely showed any damage at all!
That is ok I saw a Comet get hit by a truck. Not good either.
👍 my mustang got wrangled by a Wrangler once
bu-dum bum
As my cousin used to say when she let us drink beer in her car “don’t you vomit in my Comet”!
I had this thing come slamming down behind my house one time and it was a pretty good size round icy piece that was blue. Come to find out it was from an airplane that was dumping it sewer tank, or whatever before it landed and I’m right in the landing path for Newark airport. I guess they figured the woods behind my house for free game
Lucky she was at home – if that had been me at that age, my dad would have figured it was my fault – somehow.
You touch my Saturn and I’ll kick Uranus.
I think the story about Ann Hodges should have been included. I think there may be a racy picture associated with that one.
As for my story on a meteorite I saw one streaking one night. It was a sight to behold.
Chevy should have put the car in their ads: “hit by a meteor and it still runs!”
John Cameron Swayze smiles.
They might have slammed into us with one of their meteors, but we finally got our revenge. We had NASA hit one of their asteroids with a Rocket 88 recently.
my oh my, the puns abound at the speed of sound. I’ve had a car or two i wish had been whacked by a space rock – would’ve made me not regret the original purchase when I cash in on the new novel wreck.
Chevy could have used the Like a Rock slogan for this car. LoL. Getting smacked by a meteorite helped the car to have a better value which is kind of funny.
If you apply the math with inflation, Michelle received $75,000 for a car and extremely rare meteorite that combined would exceed 3.5 million dollars today. Not exactly a fair deal.
It is probably rude to consider a human being as an object, so, technically, the car is the most famous meteorite impact object, while Ann Hodges is the most famous person impacted by a meteorite. Fortunately for Ms. Hodges hers did not compare with the Peekskill meteorite.
There was a police car hit by a meteor around 1972. Crushed the top in
No puns here… About two years ago, Summer in Plymouth Ma, swimming after midnight, just floating, mostly underwater, avoiding the mosquitoes, I was looking directly East, as a Fireball came from the Southeast. (Picture if you will) Looking at the East Coast Go towards Bermuda, and picture the Meteor, streaking across the sky towards Boston. It was so close, I could hear the Swoosh as it flew by. Has anyone else ever reported hearing the/ a swoosh? It may have hit the ground, and it was moving…2 seconds and it was out of site. My personal take on the only Celestial Earthbound object …I’ve ever heard!
I have, and saw the smoke trail in the sky. I live in a small mountain community and was in the backyard watching a meteorite storm, which I’ve done many times. A sight I’ll never forget.
Did State Farm cover the damage?
Please. Sir. This is a Hagerty site. We do not need to mention Flo, or Lemu, or JK Simmons. Or “Mayhem.”
Nah, Farmer’s Ins. They’ve seen a thing or two.
Farmer’s
I can tell you it would have been covered if it hit your house, was a SF fire claim rep. in a prior life. Nuclear war would not be though. I am just imagining how much that rock would be worth today if it was NOT cut up! Isn’t it like diamonds when it comes to value?
I saw a very similar meteor(ite?) a few years before that one. I might’ve remembered it as this one, but as it was on a Friday night, mine would’ve been on a Sunday, most likely. Brilliant green, with bits of yellow sparking. Never heard where it hit though. This was outside Springfield Oh.
Greens and reds sparking off the fireball of a descending object strongly
suggest it was a dead satellite or a booster rocket stage re-entering the atmosphere.
Launched items are mostly constructed of aluminium, titanium, copper & plastics which
burn with bright colors.
So, was this covered by Hagerty Insurance? Then, probably not. Now?