World of the Bizarre

Driver gets a scare when meteorite strikes windscreen of his Tesla

By T.K. Randall
November 8, 2025

Image: Driving Car
Credit: Santeri Viinamäki / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Dr Andrew Melville-Smith, who hails from Whyalla, had been heading home in his brand new Tesla Model Y recently when a sudden, loud crash prompted him to hit the brakes.

"I thought we'd crashed," he said.

"I was in shock; I remember wiping glass particles from my face and being completely disoriented."

After he had managed to compose himself, he realized that something had struck his windscreen, spreading small fragments of glass all over the inside of the car.

Far from being something he had crashed into, however, it looked as though something hot had fallen out of the sky and struck the car with such force that part of the glass had actually melted.

Incredibly, it seemed as though a meteorite may have been to blame.Dr Melville-Smith had been incredibly lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) - as he had been traveling at 68mph at the time and it was dark out, so it was a miracle that he had managed to stop safely.

The space rock itself must have bounced off as there was no sign of it in the car.

Keen to get a second opinion, he decided to approach the South Australian Museum about the incident.

"Once I looked at all the details and the glass of his windscreen seems to have melted a little bit, and the acrylic layers in the glass have discoloration, almost like they've been burnt," said Museum Minerals and Meteorites Collection Manager Dr Kieran Meaney.

"It was certainly hit by something and it was something hot, and we don't have another good explanation for what else it could have been."

If confirmed, this will be the first case ever of a meteorite striking a moving vehicle.

The odds of this happening are probably around a billion to one.

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Australia, Meteorite, Tesla