When your name is Comette you may get used to jokes about
rockets and space and planets. But French schoolboy Hugo
Comette, 11, had the last laugh when of all the places, in all
the countries on Earth, a piece of rock from outer space landed
on his home. An egg-sized meteorite believed to be 4.57bn years
old smashed through the roof of the Comette family home on the
outskirts of Paris some time over the summer when everyone was
away on holiday. And there the rock, blackened by its journey
through Earth's atmosphere stayed, buried in the roof
insulation, until Hugo's mother, civil servant Martine Comette,
32, noticed the roof was leaking and called out someone to fix
it. The roofer took one look at the broken tile and told the
Comettes that whatever had smashed their roof tile must have
come from the sky. "It would have had to be superman to break a
tile in this way," he said. It was only then that the meteorite,
weighing 88g (3.5oz), was discovered. Curious to know exactly
what it was, Mrs Comette called out