German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite.

[Ice Tea]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06...eorite_strike/

Quote


German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite
Size of a pea, luckily

A 14-year-old German lad survived a close encounter with a meteorite when a pea-sized piece of rock travelling at 30,000 mph left him with nothing more than a "nasty" three-inch gash on his hand.

According to the Telegraph, Gerrit Blank was on his way to school in Essen when a bright light in the sky heralded the arrival of the red-hot space rock. It bounced off his hand before embedding itself in a foot-wide crater in the ground.

Blank recounted: "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 into the road."

Subsequent tests on the teen-bashing space pea proved its provenance. Ansgar Kortem, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, confirmed: "It's a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists.


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[Funkstar]

I'm surprised it was going that fast. I thought it would have slowed down after it entered the atmosphere.

[TAKTAK]

We need pictures of his gash

[MadduckUK]

We need pictures of his gash

[DeludedGuy]

I'm surprised it was going that fast. I thought it would have slowed down after it entered the atmosphere.

Im pretty sure the air resistance would have slown it down.

A pea sized rock at 30k mph would have done serious damage, considering a handgun can fire a bullet at more or less 900mph, thats over 30 times slower than that "30,000 mph" stone.

Nonsense.

[JK Ferret]

It bounced off his hand before embedding itself in a foot-wide crater in the ground.

WTF.

That is all.

yes yes... this is me starting to lurk... I fail at lurking

[TAKTAK]

[MaddAussie]

This reminds me of a guy who I used to work with at tesco waaay back in the day, (he was the trolly boy and a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic) He was four hours late one day and claimed he had been hit by a meteorite. The HR Manager and I could hardly keep a straight face but now I wonder....

[Stringent]

Thats a guy?!

Very fortunate.

[Singh400]

Must have been huge to survive the burn up when entering the atomsphere.

[Grey M@a]

Must be shopped, I don't see no foot wide crater caused by the meteorite

[Funkstar]

WTF.

That is all.

yes yes... this is me starting to lurk... I fail at lurking

Get off our forums boy!

yes i did see the 'hidden' text

[unreal]

Who told him that haircut is cool?

Haha seriously though that's a story that no one would believe if you told them.

[JPreston]

This reminds me of a guy who I used to work with at tesco waaay back in the day, (he was the trolly boy and a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic) He was four hours late one day and claimed he had been hit by a meteorite. The HR Manager and I could hardly keep a straight face but now I wonder....

Brilliant!!

[jim]

I love the suggestion that its velocity was high enough to make a foot-wide crater in a road, but too slow to give him more than a graze.

He's a genetically-modified super-skinned freak.

[Lucio]

I love the suggestion that its velocity was high enough to make a foot-wide crater in a road, but too slow to give him more than a graze.

He's a genetically-modified super-skinned freak.

Not necessarily, it could be a simple case of the angle of incidence being just right so that it catches the skin and bounces off in the same way a spacecraft can bounce off the atmosphere if it doesn't get the correct entry angle.