Rare Cosmic Crashes: Only Three Documented Meteorite Hits on Cars
Three documented cases show that space rocks can and have hit cars: a 1938 3.9‑lb meteorite punched through Edward McCain’s Pontiac in Benld, IL; the 1992 Peekskill incident saw a 26.5‑lb iron chondrite smash Michelle Knapp’s Malibu, later becoming a museum piece and meteorite sale; and in 2009 a 0.1‑lb chondrite shattered a Nissan Pathfinder’s windshield in Grimsby, Ontario. NASA notes such events are extremely rare—Earth is peppered daily with space dust, intact meteorites reach the surface about once per year, and the odds of hitting a populated area are exceedingly small.
