Meteor

Death by meteor is a form of death in The Sims 3, introduced in The Sims 3: Ambitions. It is the successor to Death by Satellite which was seen in The Sims 2.

Meteor impacts occurs very randomly in the game but if a Sim has been using a telescope outside for a very long time the chances of it occuring will increase. There is also a very small chance a meteor will fall directly on top of them. Whenever a meteor is about to fall on top of a Sim, a large shadow will appear around them and ominous music will play. A message will appear stating that your Sim wonders why it suddenly got dark. All Sims on the lot will run outside to look up curiously at the sky, and the meteor can be seen if the camera view is in the right position at the exact moment it falls, or if you zoom out at the right time, you can see the meteor streak across the sky. When a meteor hits the ground, a mushroom cloud will appear. The impact also creates fire around the area. Also, the area will be littered with ash, scrap metal and space rocks. A meteor can also hit a building or house but however Sims will automatically leave as the meteor approaches. If the building is a rabbit hole and the Sims inside it don't leave on time then will all be killed by the meteor.

Before a meteor hits the ground, the player has plenty of time to move the Sim out of harm's way, but if they do nothing there is a high chance that the Sim could be directly hit by a meteor which would cause this death. If there are any other Sims near the impact site, they is also a high chance that they will get sighed because of the fire caused by the impact.

Meteors never fall directly on children, though they may still get crushed if they stand close enough to the impact zone of a meteor aiming for a larger and matured Sim.

The ghost color of the Sim that died is orange which is quite similar to that from death by fire with the exception of a dim black texture. The tombstone depicts a meteor.

Unless mods are used, it is almost impossible to be hit by a meteor, so this is a very uncommon form of death. Only one premade Sim, Steward Curious, died from being hit by a meteor.

As with some other types of death, the only types of Sims who cannot die in this way are ghosts (playable or non-playable), babies and toddlers.

Related
In The Sims 2: Seasons, using the Weathernaught 57X with low aspiration carries a high chance that meteors will fall from the sky and start fires. Sims in range of the meteors can be set on fire and die.

Glitches
Interestingly, when a meteor hits a rabbit hole it is not destroyed. However, those Sims that were inside it when the rabbit hole was hit by the meteor will still die. When they die, they will be seen exiting the rabbit hole in a normal state but will suddenly vanish out of thin air right before their ghost can be seen.