A meteorite measuring approximately 2 cm (0.8 inches) smashed the windscreen of a parked Toyota in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, approximately 35 km (22 miles) to the northwest of Birmingham, on December 26, 2024.
The rock exhibits a shiny, burned surface, and is magnetized, a known characteristic of meteorites.
The discovery was made the following morning by Paul Butler, who initially assumed the previous night’s loud noise — around 22:30 LT (21:30 UTC), was caused by nearby fireworks.
“We found out it was about a billion-to-one chance of a meteorite hitting the car in our driveway, so we’ve started buying lottery tickets,” Paul said.
Meteorites are fragments of asteroids or comets that survive their passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and impact the surface. The energy from a meteorite’s high-speed descent can cause damage while most are small and harmless as evidenced by this incident.
The International Meteor Organization (IMO) currently has no fireball data for the time/date Paul reported.
There is, however, an entry for a fireball at 18:36 UTC on December 26 with reports coming around Birmingham, making it a likely source of the meteorite. This event was captured on camera located in Llanyre:
If you have witnessed this fireball event, let us know in the comments below and fill out IMO’s fireball report.
References:
1 Fireball event 8178-2024 – IMO – Accessed January 14, 2025
2 Stratford car windscreen smashed… by a piece of space rock – Stratford-upon-Avon Herald – January 11, 2025
Rishika holds a Master’s in International Studies from Stella Maris College, Chennai, India, where she earned a gold medal, and an MCA from the University of Mysore, Karnataka, India. Previously, she served as a Research Assistant at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India. During her tenure, she contributed as a Junior Writer for Europe Monitor on the Global Politics website and as an Assistant Editor for The World This Week. Her work has also been published in The Hindu newspaper, showing her expertise in global affairs. Rishika is also a recipient of the Women Empowerment Award at the district level in Haryana, India, in 2022.