Welcome back to Comment Of The Day! Every day, we read every single comment posted on our site and pick the one that made us laugh, get informed, or feel warm inside. You don’t have to go into our posts and write awesome comments. But you do, and that means a lot to us. So we’re highlighting some of the most excellent bits of thought that you’ve formed into words and digitized onto our website. Today, Jason wrote a story that on its surface sounds insane. Actually, even after the explanation, it’s still pretty wild. The Peekskill Meteorite Car is a 1980 Chevy Malibu that’s insured for a million dollars. Why? Because on October 9, 1992, a 26.5-pound chunk of space rock came down and punched its way to this poor piece of Malaise Era American sedan.
This meteorite, classified as an H6 Chondrite, apparently came in going about 25,000 mph before slowing down to about 180 mph before it hammered its way through the car. It punched through the entire trunk of the Malibu and made a crater under the car. This makes it the only confirmed car to get banged up by a meteorite, and the car’s lived the life of a rockstar in the years since. The car was sold for a bunch of money, as were its title and individual parts like a broken taillight bulb. The thread on this one is full of funny jokes, but one stands out for my continued laughter as I write this. This COTD goes to Sid Bridge, who applied meteorite pedantry to this car: Once the Malibu impacted the ground, I think you’re supposed to call it a Malibuite. Also, Sid does car-based comedy, and it’s worth a watch!
This whole article and its comments section are making me cry laughing, especially the part about how the Malibu’s owner deduced that the damage wasn’t from vandalism, and Jason’s followup: For the record, if you’re curious, here’s how NASA answers the “meteor vs meteorite vs meteoroid” question: That neighbor did some top-notch forensic work there, surmising that your average vandal isn’t normally able to “throw rocks through cars,” which is one of those details of life I think we should all be more grateful about. So there you have it, this car is no longer a Malibu. Congratulations to Sid Bridge! Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as “space rocks.” When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite. Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
Yugo, Subaru, And Also Proton? It Turns Out Malcolm Bricklin Really Liked Importing Dirt-Cheap Cars This Is What A Coolant Leak Looks Like In Space Make $80 An Hour From Home With This One Quick Trick: COTD Sid – wishing you all the success in the comedy business, you seem to have everything to succeed on merit. Really rooting for you. Master Autopians – this is great content right here, just hire Sid right now to tape 5-minute car comedy routine once a month. That shit’s gonna explode the click-o-meter. Shit, hire me for the intro jingle and video editing. Sid, you in on this?
