Meteorite Hits Girl 505
redcliffe writes "The BBC has a story about a 14 year old North Yorkshire girl who was hit, on the foot, by a meteorite. Where's Bruce Willis when you need him?" The young Miss Carlton notes: "This does not happen that often in Northallerton"; no doubt the City of York is where most meteorites land.
Re:hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, the thing that caught me was that she said it was hot to the touch. Small meteorites tend to be cold by the time they hit the ground. They are mostly iron, so they conduct heat well, and cool off fast in the upper atmosphere.
And she said it looked "rusty". Meteorites are black; they can't oxidize in space.
It will be interesting to see if there's a follow-up on this.
BTW, here [nyrockman.com] is a picture of a car in NY that was hit by a 12.5-kg meteorite in 1995. Ouch!
Re:Not the first time . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
I always thought that too, but while googling for a picture of the Peekskill Meteorite car [nyrockman.com], I stumbled on this page [branchmeteorites.com], which shows at least three separate incidents where a person was killed by a meteorite. None have happened recently, though.
What's more important . . . (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't believe it... (Score:3, Interesting)
No corroborating evidence at all except the word of the adolescent girl herself. Nobody else saw it. Nobody but she can testify that it was warm.
They say they "plan" to have the stone analyzed by scientists, but it hasn't happened yet.
Even the scientist couldn't prove that someone hadn't warmed up a meteorite and pitched it over the rooftops.
I have no doubt Charles Fort would put this in his newspaper clippings file, but the only thing that's remarkable about this to me is that the BBC would publish it.
I bet a nickel that there's never even any followup story reporting on any scientist's report on the meteorite. I can just see the family in their car on their way to the university and the embarrassed kid 'fesses up.
Re:I don't believe it... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually this is the #1 reason I don't think she was hit by this meteorite - it's a common missconception that meteorites are hot when they hit the earth. There's an FAZ article [faz.com] about common myths about meteorites.
The #2 reason: Even a small piece of iron/rock like this, falling from more than 100m height surely would break a girl's foot if it hits it.
My guess: She bought the meteorite via internet and maybe it fell on her foot when she opened the package...
Re:With those odds (Score:3, Interesting)