Posted on 06/12/2009 3:56:22 AM PDT by JoeProBono
A teenager was hit by a meteorite travelling at 30,000mph - and lived to tell the tale.Gerrit Blank was on his way to school when he saw a massive fireball heading straight towards him from the sky.
The white-hot meteorite bounced off the schoolboy's hand and hit the ground so hard it left a foot-long crater in the tarmac - as well as a three-inch scar on his hand.
Gerrit, 14, said: "At first I just saw a large ball of light and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand.
"Then, a split second after that, there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder."
"The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.
"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself in the road."
Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite, which crashed to Earth in Essen in Germany.
Chemical tests on the rock have now proved it is from outer space.
Ansgar Korte, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: "It's a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists."
Chances of being struck by a meteorite are around one in 100 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
It wasn’t going 30,000mph when it hit him. His hand would have exploded if it had.
How cool is that?
That does it, I’m not coming out from under this bed!
I hate when that happens.
God: “Good shot. What do you want from me? Good shot.”
ML/NJ
“It’s a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists.”
Doesn’t it belong to Garrett Blank?
With odds like that if I would recommend that he buy a lottery ticket without delay while he is on a roll.
I dunno how they arrived at 30,000 mph, but it’s quite credible. A object falling from the Ort cloud to the surface of earth will be traveling about 44 km/sec (100,000 mph), most of the acceleration being provided by the sun’s gravity. The atmosphere will slow it down some...
Why was the kid going so fast?
Butterfingers! He shoulda caught it. ;)
“I hate when that happens.”
I was riding my bike with some friends about 57’ when a rock fell right out of the sky and stuck in my hand. My hand was on the handlebar and we were sitting in the middle of a schoolyard when what looked to be some kind of glassy black pointy rock suddenly appeared in it. I still have the scar and to this day I can’t figure out what happened.
May not have reached terminal velocity, even though it’s quite small. Should have started off at 100,000 mph at the top of the atmosphere. Would have been slowed somewhat depending on the angle of incidence, but 30,000 might not be impossible.
“There is only one other known case of a human being surviving a direct hit from a meteor.
A grapefruit-sized meteor crashed through the roof of a house in Alabama, in the USA, in 1954.
After smashing through the top of the building, it bounced off furniture and then hit a woman who was asleep at the time.”
"I can sooner believe that a couple of Yankee professors would lie, than that rocks fall from the sky." - attributed to Thomas Jefferson.
Was there a big kid anywhere near a pile of gravel around the school yard? Just wondering.
IF the meteorite was traveling at 30,000 mph, it would not bounce off a human hand.
Therefore, either the description is incorrect or the boy is not human.
I thought that, too, but if it just grazed his hand and hit nearly parallel to the skin’s surface (like 0.00001 degress), MAYBE.
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