A German family in Schleswig-Holstein has been unlucky enough to have their house hit by a falling meteor. Thankfully, the falling rock was only the size of a tennis ball.

German family house hit by a meteor

A truly unexpected guest has paid a visit to a family’s home in Schleswig-Holstein. On Tuesday, an oblong rock about the size of a tennis ball penetrated the roof of the family house in Elmshorn.

According to a report in the local newspaper, the Elmshorner Nachrichten, the meteor weighed about 225 grams and was part of a pair which fell on the town, with the other forming a small crater in a nearby residential area.

Last meteor hit Schloss Neuschwanstein in 2002

After the rock had hit, a spokesperson from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) confirmed it was indeed a meteor, noting that a strike of this type is an exceedingly rare occurrence. Most meteors burn up on their way to Earth, meaning they have disappeared before they can hit the surface.

In a strange twist of fate, the last time a meteor is known to have landed in Germany, it hit the picturesque, world-famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria in 2002.

More recently, a larger meteor struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. According to the DLR, the shock wave from the Chelyabinsk meteor was so large that it damaged more than 7.000 buildings.

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