Post by Tony on Jun 13, 2009 7:03:40 GMT -5
news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/825171/schoolboy-survives-meteor-strike
A schoolboy has survived being hit by a meteorite that came crashing down to earth at 48,000km/h.
Gerrit Blank, 14, was walking to school in Essen in western Germany when he saw a "ball of light" in the sky hurtling towards him, Britain's The Telegraph newspaper reports.
The meteorite, a red-hot rock the size of a pea, slammed into Gerrit's hand before crashing into the road to create a 30cm-wide crater.
"At first I just saw a large ball of light and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand," the newspaper quoted Gerrit as saying.
"Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder."
The lucky teenager survived the strike but was left with a nasty 8cm scar on his hand.
Scientists are now examining the meteorite and chemical tests have already proven the rock fell from space.
Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory director Ansgar Kortem told The Telegraph the meteorite would be very valuable to scientists and collectors.
"Most don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere," he said.
"Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water."
The chances of a person being hit by a meteorite are thought to be about one in a million.
The only other known example of a human surviving a meteor strike happened in the US state of Alabama in 1954.
Then a grapefruit-sized space rock hit a sleeping woman after it crashed through a house roof and bounced off some furniture.
A schoolboy has survived being hit by a meteorite that came crashing down to earth at 48,000km/h.
Gerrit Blank, 14, was walking to school in Essen in western Germany when he saw a "ball of light" in the sky hurtling towards him, Britain's The Telegraph newspaper reports.
The meteorite, a red-hot rock the size of a pea, slammed into Gerrit's hand before crashing into the road to create a 30cm-wide crater.
"At first I just saw a large ball of light and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand," the newspaper quoted Gerrit as saying.
"Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder."
The lucky teenager survived the strike but was left with a nasty 8cm scar on his hand.
Scientists are now examining the meteorite and chemical tests have already proven the rock fell from space.
Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory director Ansgar Kortem told The Telegraph the meteorite would be very valuable to scientists and collectors.
"Most don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere," he said.
"Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water."
The chances of a person being hit by a meteorite are thought to be about one in a million.
The only other known example of a human surviving a meteor strike happened in the US state of Alabama in 1954.
Then a grapefruit-sized space rock hit a sleeping woman after it crashed through a house roof and bounced off some furniture.