Sixty-five years ago, a few days after Thanksgiving, Ann Hodges was on her couch at home in the state of Alabama when a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite crashed through the ceiling. The woman, struck by the meteorite, was left with a hematoma on the left side of her body.

The night in 1954 when the woman was hit by the meteorite

On November 30, 1954, the softball-sized space rock, weighing about 3.8 kilogramsi, came through the roof of Hodges’ home in Sylacauga at 2:46 p.m. local time and struck the woman while she was on her couch. The meteorite bounced off a radio before hitting her and leaving the unfortunate woman with a large dark bruise.

The meteorite that hit Hodges, who was 31 at the time, turned out to be half of a larger rock that split in two as it fell toward Earth. The piece that did not hit the woman landed a few kilometres away. Both pieces are now in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. In 2017, a 10.3-gram piece of the space rock that hit Hodges sold at auction for €6,600.

Who owns this meteorite?

Identifying the object as a meteorite was relatively easy, but determining its ownership was anything but. The Hodge’s house was rented and, their landlady Birdie Guy, wanted to claim ownership of the meteorite. “Suing is the only way she will ever get it,” said Ann Hodges, adding, “I think God reserved it for me. After all, it hit me!”

The case was eventually settled out of court with the homeowner getting €442 to allow Ann Hodges to keep the meteorite. When the Hodges were unable to find a buyer, the family used it as an ornament for a while before donating it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History. A Canadian woman, however, found a meteorite on her bed on 3 October 2021.

What did the people in the surroundings see?

Before the meteorite ended its run on Hodges‘s body, people across eastern Alabama say they saw a bright light in the sky. Many have claimed to have seen a reddish light and others, even a fireball. As it raced across the afternoon sky, the meteorite left an arc of light and smoke. After Hodges was struck and the meteorite landed, she and her mother, both in the house at the time, tried to figure out what had happened. Dust filled the house after the incident, but when it settled, they spotted the huge bruise and realised the woman had been hit by the meteorite. The two women immediately called the police and fire brigade.

Subsequently, a geologist was called to the scene to verify the nature of the object and word quickly spread about what had happened. However, the event occurred in 1954 and not everyone was convinced that this strange rock was a meteorite. Some thought it might be debris from an aeroplane crash, and others thought it might even come from what was then the Soviet Union.

What we know about this meteorite

Despite some sceptics, people from all over the world flocked to Hodges’ home to see the woman struck by a space rock.

I haven’t been able to sleep since I was hit

Ann Hodges to the Associated Press

Hodges was soon hospitalized, though despite the huge mark on her hip, she received no serious injuries. The Sylacauga meteorite has been identified as a chondrite, says Cari Corrigan of the Smithsonian. It contains more iron and nickel than other specimens and is estimated to be more than 4.5 billion years old. Moving at about 200 kilometres per hour, the meteor lit up the sky in parts of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The entire meteorite is officially known as the Sylacauga because of where it landed, but is popularly known as the Hodges meteorite.

Was this woman hit by the meteorite really the only one?

Surprisingly, Hodges is not the only person to have been hit by a meteorite, but it is still exceptionally rare to experience such a thing. In 2009, a 14-year-old German boy, Gerrit Blank, was hit in the hand by a peanut-sized meteorite. Although he was not seriously injured, the boy received a scar and a severe scare.

When it hit me, it knocked me over and, afterwards, the stone still had energy to make a ditch in the road

Gerrit Blank at the Telegraph

How often do meteorites strike the Earth?

Most of the meteorites found by humans on Earth are between the size of a golf ball and a fist. These rocks lose about half their volume when they pass through the planet’s atmosphere. Much of the extraterrestrial material that reaches Earth falls into the ocean, and much of it is extremely small.

You have a better chance of being hit by a tornado, lightning and a hurricane at the same time.

Michael Reynolds, Florida State College astronomer at National Geographic

Most (between 90 and 95 percent) of these meteors burn up completely in the atmosphere, resulting in a bright streak that can be seen in the night sky. However, when meteors survive their high-speed journey to Earth and fall to earth, they are called meteorites. It is estimated that each year the Earth is hit by about 6100 meteors large enough to reach the ground, or about 17 every day.