Draft:Auckland (meteorite)

The Auckland meteorite, also known as the Ellerslie meteorite ...

Impact
At 9.30 am on 12 June 2004, a meteorite crashed through the roof of a house in Ellerslie, a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. After bouncing off a couch and hitting the ceiling, it came to a standstill in the living room, not long after homeowners' grandson had been playing there. The crash was accompanied by a "huge" explosion, and caused dust to go throughout the room. Due to the landing occurring at daylight, nobody saw the meteorite fall to the ground —Brenda Archer (one of the homeowners) said "If it had fallen in the garden, it would probably have been added to the pile of rocks I'm taking to the dump. Nobody would have known about it."

The meteorite has the size of a grapefruit and a weight of 1.3 kg. As the country's ninth meteorite to be recovered, it was the first since 1976; the tenth was found in 2024. It was also the country's second meteorite to have been discovered shortly after falling to the ground. It is the only time a meteorite a has ever hit a house in New Zealand.

Public reaction and sale
This event appeared on the news throughout the world, and was followed by a "meteorite frenzy" in New Zealand. Many people were convinced that they were under the possession of a meteorite, and took them to be assesssed by scientists. No new meteorites were found.

The Archer family was subsequently flooded with offers from around the world. This included an offer of US$15,000 (NZ$24,000) from the United States, and an offer of NZ$50,000 from South Korea. These were rejected, with difficulty; the Archers said, "We're both retired, so we don't need the money". They had no plan on keeping it and wanted to sell it within New Zealand to someone who would put it on public display. It was soon bought by the Auckland War Memorial Museum for NZ$40,000 and it remains there.

Scientific analysis and name
Scientists were initially sceptical that it really came from space, but later confirmed that it did.

2023 journal article.

Scientists wanted to split the meteorite to determine its composition. This was cancelled a few weeks after the landing as too much of the meteorite would have had to have been taken off. It appears that GNS Science later split it open.

Officially named the Auckland Meteorite despite a tradition of naming meteorites after the nearest post office. There is a meterorite named Ellerslie in Australia. The name Tecoma, the street of the house that the meteorite crashed into, was also not used as it was the name of a meteorite in the United States.

Four billion years old.

Unorganised
Starting in July 2004 it spent two months in an exhibition in Auckland Museum. The archers hoped that their broken roof and ceiling panels as well as the couch would take part in the exhibition. Also arranged for a Te Papa exhibition in December 2004 (source is from July; check if this actually happened).