Andrew Melville-Smith
A real crater on the windshield of a recently purchased car. Something melted and sank in an Australian Tesla, and science points to Space.
Veterinarian Andrew Melville-Smith was driving his Tesla around Australia on October 19 when something hit the windshield of his new vehicle.
“I thought we had hit,” reported Melville-Smith, quoted by . “I was in shock; I remember wiping glass particles off my face and being completely disoriented.” The car, a Tesla Model Y, filled with white smoke and a burning smell, increasing the confusion.
“My wife said, ‘The car exploded,’” Melville-Smith told IFLScience. “I thought someone had shot us with a shotgun.” However, after a quick check, both hypotheses were discarded. With the exception of the destroyed windshield, the car was perfectly functional — and continued to run. There was no sign of a bullet, and the possibility of someone being in such a remote area to shoot was minimal.
Although kangaroos are a common danger on the roads in that region, the case is different — no animal could causing a crater in the windshield, which had melted and sunk into the car.
None could repair the autonomous driving mode cameras and all reported never having seen a partially melted windshield. The destruction was extensive: One of the technicians commented that car glass melts at around 1,500 °C and that he had no idea what could cause such damage.
Now, all the cards are on the table, and the strongest one is the possibility that the vehicle was the target of the first recorded collision of a meteorite. The South Australian Museum, which initially suspected everything but a space rock, investigates. “We get a lot of requests about meteorites at the museum, and most of the time it’s just an Earth rock that closely mimics a meteorite,” explained curator Kieran Meaney. All possibilities are still open.
