A hole in the roof, a bathroom full of debris and a strange, silvery rock near the toilet - the Nageswaran family soon realised they needed an astronomer, not a contractor, to fully explain what damaged their house. Scientists determined it was a meteorite that crashed through the roof of their central New Jersey home. While extraterrestrial rocks fall to the Earth with some regularity, it is rare for them to strike homes. The family initially thought an old patch job in the ceiling had come loose. The mystery deepened after Shankari Nageswaran started cleaning up. On the floor directly below the hole, under an evergreen bath mat, the tile was dented. There was another dent on the wall. Near the back of the toilet, she found a metallic rock, about the same size and shape as the hole in the ceiling. The sparkly rock was the size of a golf ball but heavier at 13 ounces. Two geologists from Rutgers University, along with an independent metallurgist concluded that the rock - tentatively named "Freehold Township' - was an iron meteorite.