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 wasnt going 30,000mph when it hit him. His hand would have exploded if it had.]
You misread, actually the boy was going 30,000 mph.
LOL yeah that makes a lot more sense.
This one's bigger.
Pingualuit, near Kangirsukjuak, Quebec, Canada
Is Pingualuit the former Chubb Crater? An early childhood memory is reading about it in the Childhood Britannica. The caption said the crater was full of water. Naturally, as a kid, I though that meant the meteor itself was filled with water, that just stayed in the crater when it hit. IIRC it is very deep, and that gives it the amazing blue color.
I visited meteor crater, but got no further than the museum and viewing terrace. I like that it’s still privately owned. I didn’t see the astronaut, but did see the wreckage of the plane that crashed there as well as the remains of Beringer’s “iron mine” derrick.
Yes ... it's very deep, on the order of 1400 ft, though not all of that is filled with water.
Never been in Barringer Crater. Seems like a great, and unique hike.
Correct. NO WAY this was traveling at 30K MPH when it hit him. Even if it came close and the shock wave is what hurt him (as some have suggested)...a rock the size of a pea traveling at 30K will vaporize on impact. An object that size traveling at 30K MPH contains 900K joules of energy...which equates to about a 1/2 lb of exposives when it hits the ground.
I read it. I don’t believe a single word of it.
Bullcrap. Everyword.
Terminal velocity for something that size is about 100mph.
It would have burn up in the atmoshere.
There is not enough mass there to create a crater.
If and object had enough mass to do what the kid explained, the shockwave would have ripped his body apart.
I could go on......
These things hit Earth all day everyday. Most burn up. A few hit the ground. They hit the ground like an acorn out of a tree.
Actually, I shoot a lot. A .223 has a muzzle velocity of about 3,500 fps (have seen as low as about 2,500, and as high as 4,000). Now, 3,500fps / 5,280 feet/mile * 3,600 second/hour = about 2,386 mph (which I rounded to 2,500 mph).
Don’t do math much before smarting off, do you?
Yup, you’re probably right.
Along with everthing around him. The expanding air and shockwave would have ripped him to shreds. It is impossible for an object of that mass to go that fast through our atmosphere without propulsion.
hehe
Yup. Really big massive meteors can be going that fast when they hit (example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barringer_Crater), but pea sized ones? No way!
“Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000mph”
Man I thought I could ride my bike fast.....
Maybe the boy got hit by impact debris instead.
You would think Sky.news could get their facts right concerning this subject. But isn’t it a meteor till it hits the ground.
Angry sparrows with machine-guns loaded with tiny rocks.
( Tip of the hat to Robin the Boy Wonder for that one.)
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