THE festive holidays brought an out-of-this-world experience for one Stratford family.
The Butlers, who live on Birmingham Road, heard a strange bang at 10.30pm on Boxing Day.
Next morning when they went outside, Paul Butler was baffled to find his mum and dad’s car, left safely on his drive within a secure courtyard and well away from the road, had a cracked windscreen.
Events took an even weirder turn when Paul’s youngest son Nathan found a strange-looking rock on the ground near the car.
About two centimetres long, it’s jet black with shiny bits and doesn’t look like any other rocks they’ve ever seen.
Nathan Butler, aged 12, pictured with his father Paul, found the meteorite on the family home’s driveway on the Birmingham Road just outside Stratford. Photo: Mark Williamson
An internet search reveals it looks exactly like a meteorite.
The pair also used a set of magnets to test the rock and found it was magnetised – a classic tell-tale sign.
Nathan, 12, said: “I was looking around the ground near where the car was hit and there was this black rock that stood out from all the others.”
Paul said: “When we heard the bang the night before, we didn’t really think much of it at the time – we thought it was a firework or something.
“It was all a bit of a shock in the morning to see my mum and dad’s car, as there are no passing cars and nothing from the outside road that could have made it happen.
“There’s no way that damage was on the car the day before, either, because my dad would have seen it.
“We think it’s a meteorite because it looks odd and burnt, like it’s been in a furnace, and we don’t know what else it could have been.”
The meteorite impacted a car windscreen.
Paul’s dad Graham and mum June have since driven the Toyota back to their home in Broadway and face the job of explaining to their insurance company.
After the holiday, Nathan plans to take the space rock into Myton School where he’s a pupil and show it to his science teacher to see what he thinks.
Paul added: “A meteorite is the only logical explanation for what caused it.
“It obviously happened on our driveway, because the glass was inside the car – it was all over the dashboard and on the driver’s seat, so that it must have splintered the windscreen.
“It made a bit of a mess which wasn’t great but the car was drivable – it’s just lucky it didn’t hit anybody on the head.
“We’ve started buying lottery tickets because the chances of a meteorite falling on our drive was probably about one in a billion so maybe it’s a sign.”
What are meteroites
The meteorite found on a driveway on the Birmingham Road just outside Stratford. Photo: Mark WilliamsonMark Williamson
Meteorites are small pieces of interplanetary debris that survive the fiery passage through our planet’s atmosphere to land on Earth.
Most that fall to earth come from the asteroid belt, a band of planetary debris orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Some originate from Mars or the Moon.
The Geminid meteor shower returns every December and is called a meteor storm – this can produce as many as 150 meteors per hour.
Meteorites are often named after the place they’re discovered.