Posted on 08/27/2002 11:50:09 AM PDT by blam
Tuesday, 27 August, 2002, 12:27 GMT 13:27 UK
'Meteorite' hits girl
Siobhan Cowton: "I saw it fall from above roof height"
The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky.
This does not happen very often in Northallerton
Siobhan Cowton
Noticing it was "quite hot", she showed it to her father Niel.
The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University.
"I saw it fall from above roof height," Siobhan told BBC News Online.
"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava.
'Shiny'
"It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron.
"I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton."
Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself.
The stone may have come from Mars
"It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find," he said.
"It is worth a lot to Siobhan.
"We will have it mounted in a glass presentation case so she can keep it for the rest of her life.
"After all it is not every day you get hit by a meteorite.
"The odds of winning the Lottery are better."
The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University.
"It could be billions of years old and come from the earliest formation of the solar system," he told the Daily Mail newspaper.
Most meteors are between five and 60 centimetres (1.95 in and 1 ft 11.5 in) long, according to Durham University physical geography lecturer Dr Ben Horton.
"Sometimes they have shallow depressions and cavities," he said.
I don't think so. But then again, to get a more accurate picture, the weight and composition of the meteoite must be known. Interesting, the article neglected to mention this. It did say however, that it was rusty looking as if it contained iron. Iron heavy....
Actually completely wrong. ANY meteorite of that size (or even quite a bit larger) will be basically at "room temperature" and not "hot" or even "warm" (not any warmer than any dark-colored rock sitting out in the sun") even IMMEDIATELY after impact.
In fact, reports of rocks being "hot" or having fallen in a field and set crops on fire, etc. has been a reliable DEAD givaway of hoaxes or faked reports.
The general public, because of bad science fiction movies, etc., is so convinced that all meteors are hot and burn stuff when the make impact, that when they fake a report they describe meteors as hot when in reality they aren't.
In any event, I think the story stinks. Of course, I am a very skeptical person...
Got a source on that? You get NO meteorites at all from the well known meteor "showers"...they're tiny specs of comet dust that never has the slightest chance of reaching the ground. Land impacting meteorites are simply random events.
Glad somebody recognized the tune. =;^)
I couldn't resist.
Hmmmm? In the early 60's I used to visit a tavern that was all the way out on the point of LI. It was named the 'Apple Tree.' Is it still there?
The rain of meteorites is fairly steady. Big ones, such as bolides, get blasted to dust in the atmosphere, but the dust filters down to the surface eventually. Over 10 million years, the entire earth would be covered by an inch of meteorite dust, depending on estimates.
No "KIDDING" - as in THE World Series ?
I leaned about having snow ball fights with pitchers the hard way.
Got into one with this guy built like a cigerrette machine.
He threw a snowball at me from across a field, this thing had no trajectory.
Meaning that, from when it left his hand to when it hit me in the eye, it didn't drop an inch.
There wasn't time to move.
Funny thing was, I could HEAR it coming - kinda of WISSSSSS sound, than SMACK.
I lost sight in that eye for about 20 minutes, some residual retinal damage.
Never have a snow ball fight with a pitcher.
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