Bedroom UFO identified

2007-03-08 09:16

Bloomington, Illinois - An object that smashed through a window on its way to landing in a Bloomington home could be a meteorite, experts say.

The grayish, metallic object, which is about the size of a deck of cards, crashed into a computer table in the home of a surprised Dee Riddle. She said she came to investigate after she heard something smash through a bedroom window on Monday morning.

Intrigued scientists from nearby Illinois State University said it was likely a meteorite.

"In my 36 years of investigating meteorite calls, this looks like the real thing," said Robert Nelson, a geology professor at ISU. The last confirmed meteorite to strike Bloomington was in the 1930s, he said.

Nelson and other experts ruled out the possibility that it had been thrown by someone near the house, and they said it was not likely to have been space junk from a satellite or spacecraft.

The US Geological Survey's meteorite centre in Flagstaff, Arizona, will help in trying to identify the object, Nelson said.

"We were just lucky no one was sitting at the computer when it happened," she said.

- AP