A veterinarian from Whyalla, South Australia, may have experienced one of the rarest incidents ever recorded. His Tesla was struck by what could have been a meteorite while he was driving on a regional highway. The South Australian Museum has launched an investigation into the mysterious impact, which left the car\u2019s windscreen partially melted and the driver stunned.<\/p>\n
On the night of October 19, Dr. Andrew Melville-Smith was traveling along the Augusta Highway, about 40 kilometers (25 Miles) past Port Germein, when he heard what he described as a \u201cloud\u201d and \u201cviolent\u201d bang. \u201cA truck went past \u2014 five to ten seconds later, there was an enormous explosion,\u201d Dr. Melville-Smith told ABC News Australia. \u201cGlass went flying inside the car, there was white smoke everywhere, and we could smell burning. My wife thought the car was on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
The car, a Tesla Model Y<\/a> operating in self-driving mode, did not stop or appear to detect the impact. \u201cThe car was driving along and unconcerned \u2026 it wasn\u2019t aware of the chaos that was going on in the cabin,\u201d he said. Dr. Melville-Smith was left bleeding from glass fragments but managed to regain control. He initially dismissed the idea that a meteorite could be responsible, but later contacted the South Australian Museum to investigate.<\/p>\n A rare possibility<\/p>\n The South Australian Museum\u2019s mineralogist, Kieran Meaney, said that if the object proves to be a meteorite<\/a>, it could represent a world-first case of a meteorite colliding with a moving vehicle. \u201cThe odds of that happening are just phenomenally low \u2014 if he had been driving ten kilometers faster or slower, it would have missed him,\u201d Meaney said.<\/p>\n After initially suspecting a bullet or debris flicked up by a truck, the police ruled out both. \u201cThe really unusual thing is that the glass of his windscreen has actually melted a little bit; there was a lot of heat in whatever hit the windscreen,\u201d Meaney told ABC News<\/a>. He added that the museum team will analyze the damaged windscreen for any embedded particles, a process that could take weeks or months to complete.<\/p>\n According to Science Alert<\/a>, if the samples reveal traces of material consistent with a meteorite, the museum will likely conduct a search of the site to locate any remaining fragments. However, Meaney noted that alternative explanations, such as falling space debris or an object dropped from an aircraft<\/a>, are still being considered. \u201cIt may be the case once we investigate further, we find out it\u2019s something different, but at the moment that\u2019s the theory we are working with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Experts are still Skeptical<\/p>\n Not all scientists are convinced that the mysterious projectile came from space. Professor Jonti Horner, an astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland, said there is \u201cgood cause\u201d for skepticism. \u201cTwo, three, or four minutes before this rock hit the car, there should have been a very widely observed fireball in the sky, at least as bright as a full moon if not significantly brighter,\u201d Horner told ABC News.<\/p>\n He added that meteorites are typically cold when they reach the ground, contradicting the intense heat that appeared to melt Tesla\u2019s windscreen. \u201cThese things have been held at the cold, cold temperatures at the depths of space for billions of years, and they\u2019ve had a fleeting few seconds of being heated up as they pass through the atmosphere,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Dr. Hadrien Devillepoix of Curtin University shared similar doubts, telling IFL Science<\/a> that if a meteorite had caused the impact, a visible fireball would likely have been seen for hundreds of kilometers. Dr. Ellie Sansom from the Desert Fireball Network also expressed \u201cserious doubts in its space-rock origin,\u201d though she did not rule out the possibility of space debris.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A mystery yet unsolved<\/p>\n