A meteorite that smashed through the roof of a home in Hillsborough, New Jersey, two years ago has been found to contain amino acids, the fundamental building blocks of life, according to scientists who examined the rock. Researchers say the specimen is among the rarest types of meteorite ever recovered, making the discovery significant both for its rarity and for what it could reveal about the chemical ingredients present in the early solar system.

The meteorite struck the New Jersey property in a dramatic fall that punched through the roof before being retrieved and studied by scientists. Analysis of its composition revealed organic compounds associated with the origins of life, adding it to a small group of meteorites known to carry such material and offering researchers fresh material to study how life's precursors may have arrived on Earth.