Spectacular fireball over Europe sends meteorite crashing through roof of German home

A meteorite has crashed through the roof of a house in the city of Koblenz in the west of Germany after a spectacular fireball lit up the night sky above western Europe on Sunday evening, March 8.

More than 2,800 sightings of the fireball have been reported to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), with dozens of video recordings having been uploaded on social media. Witnesses reported hearing multiple explosions as the space rock disintegrated in the atmosphere, showering fragments across the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

According to available reports, multiple fragments of the meteorite have already been found in Koblenz's Güls district, which will allow researchers to determine where the meteorite came from. Although damage to multiple houses has been reported by German media, no one has been injured in the incident. The largest discovered fragment reportedly pierced a hole the size of a soccer ball into one of the roofs.

Observers from France, Belgium and the Netherlands have also reported the sighting.

"A meteor just decomposed in front of my eyes," one user shared on X, together with an image showing a white smoky streak on the darkening sky.

Images of alleged meteorite fragments were published by the German Bild newspaper on Monday morning, March 9.

Millions of space rock fragments cross Earth's path every year. Most of those space rocks evaporate in the atmosphere during the fiery entry. On a clear night, several meteors streak across the sky in an hour.

Around 10,000 meteorites impact Earth's surface every year, but only a few hundred of those are recovered, most ending their lives at the bottom of the world's oceans.