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 ...
If it passed a fraction of an inch from his hand without hitting it, wouldn’t the same injury have happened to him?
By way of comparrison, a .223 round has a muzzle velocity of about 2,500 mph (varies widely depending on lots of things).
This one was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, but it shattered on impact, leaving a mile wide hole in Arizona.
You probably nailed it. The shockwave would cut his hand. Direct contact, even a graze, would have cause a nasty burn, too...
Yes, but then it should not have been described as having 'bounced off his hand'
I call unh-uh.
It may have torn through the surface of the skin, like a glancing blow, and not been significantly deflected. Whether it could have imparted enough of an impulse to knock him down given the type of injury is dubious, more likely his reaction to the injury and loud noise caused him to fall. I’m sure he’s confused about the sequence of events, it must have all seemed like an instant.
“Was there a big kid anywhere near a pile of gravel around the school yard? Just wondering.”
I had thought about that but we were in the middle of the schoolyard with no one else around. We were in Tennessee and it’s all limestone rock around there not obsidian. Crazy.
“Chances of being struck by a meteorite are around one in 100 million.”
Wouldn’t those odds mean three people in the US would be hit? The only people on earth I know about are this kid and the Alabama lady 55 years ago.
Precisely what I was thinking.....but I clicked on the story anyway!
Probably, it grazed him, and did not “bounce off” him, and then create a divot of the stated size.
Unless the kid is super-human or....not really HUMAN AT ALL!!
This is HUGH and SERIES!!!
We’ve got an inter-galatic war going on here on earth!! No wonder Obama is spending the way he is.
No wonder....
Dont shoot much do you?
That would be about 2500 feet per second.
“”Why was the kid going so fast?””
Einstein would say he had good relatives....
“Obama” physics.
The remains of Alderaan?
Credible? Objects traveling at 30,000 mph don't "bounce off" of anything, let alone a human hand. They also don't hit anything of substance and remain intact. Objects traveling at 30,000 mph explode when they hit solid object, like boys or the ground. At most, I would surmise that this meteorite was traveling at about 600 feet per second, or a little under 200 mph when it hit him. Otherwise it would have pierced the skin.
I see his skin was pierced, so I’ll up the estimate to something below 3000 feet per second or something below 1000 mph.
At 30,000 mph his hand would have exploded, and was was left of the meteorite would have been 20 feet under the ground.
Of course it did!!
Where are the BS police?? There's NEVER one around when you need them.
So you have better odds of being hit by a meteorite than you do of winning the PowerBall lottery. And I still waste a dollar on it every now and then...
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