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| | #1 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jersey Shore
Posts: 3,233
| Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000 MPH From SKYNEWS 10:22am UK, Friday June 12, 2009 A teenager was hit by a meteorite travelling at 30,000mph - and lived to tell the tale. The meteorite struck Gerrit on the hand, and buried itself in the road 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. Mr Korte said: "Most meteorites don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere. "Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water." 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. TO
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| | #2 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Dordrecht
Posts: 3,834
| Don't believe it, "hit the ground so hard it left a foot-long crater in the tarmac", should have knocked off the hand.
__________________ ![]() " The knack of flying lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." |
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| | #3 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Central Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts: 355
| Stuff them! The kid should be the one keeping it!
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| | #4 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Stafford Springs, Connecticut
Posts: 2,221
| Hmm, I find this hard to believe. At that speed, his hand should have been taken off.
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| | #5 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 6,116
| It probably just glanced his hand, creating that long scar.
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| | #6 |
| "World Traveller" ![]() | Yeah it won't have hit his hand full on, it would of just glanced it. Besides looking at the size of it I doubt it would of taken off his hand anyway... ![]() And I agree he should keep it. Boy Hit On Arm By White-Hot Meteorite From Outer Space Travelling At 30,000mph | World News | Sky News Still, it is certainly a story for the grand kids to be told...
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| | #7 |
| Senior Member | Traveling 30,000 mph? It would have taken the hand off. A .22 calaber travels at what 2,200 mph?
__________________ "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it" "Those who dwell in the past, condemn the future" ![]() |
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| | #8 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Jersey Shore
Posts: 3,233
| That's gotta be before it hit the earth's atmosphere. Had to be way slower by the time it got to this kid's hand, arm, whatever. If it's true. TO
__________________ ![]() “Let's get Enterprise and Hornet turned into the wind." |
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| | #9 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Redding, California
Posts: 3,357
| I'd be willing to bet that it never physically touched his hand, but his injury was created by the trans-sonic envelope around the meteorite as it passed by him. I would have thought debris splashing back after impact, which may still be the case, but he said it hurt before it hit the ground.
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| | #10 |
| Senior Member | I'm just having a real hard time believing this.
__________________ "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it" "Those who dwell in the past, condemn the future" ![]() |
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| | #11 | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 885
| Quote:
When I say fps, I am saying feet-per-second.
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| | #12 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Texas
Posts: 1,738
| I don't know if he is really lucky or really almost unlucky. Hard to say.
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| | #13 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Adelaide Sth. Aust.
Posts: 12,525
| mmm.....interesting to say the least!
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| | #14 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Hurst, Texas
Posts: 2,827
| Yeah, I had to throw the BS flag out on that one, too.....30,000 mph, he wouldn't have time to register the pain before it was already on the ground, much less realize that he was hit by a meteor and note that it had just plowed a foot-deep hole in the ground. And that much kinetic energy would've ripped his hand off (if not the arm, too).
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| | #15 |
| Senior Member | 30,000 mph.... |
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