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14-Year-Old Boy Smote By Meteorite

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-grounding-doesn't-seem-that-bad-now dept.

eldavojohn writes "Winning the lottery requires incredible luck and one in a million odds. So does getting hit by a falling space rock. A 14-year-old German boy was granted a three-inch scar by the gods. A pea-sized meteorite smote young Gerrit Blank's hand before leaving a foot-sized crater on the road. The boy's account: '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.' Curiously, the rock was magnetic, and tests were done to verify it is extraterrestrial. The Telegraph notes the only other recorded event of a meteorite striking a person was 'in November 1954 when a grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off furniture and landed on a sleeping woman.' Space.com lists a few more anomalies and we discussed the probability of these things downing aircraft recently."

9 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. What's this picture for? by GigaHurtsMyRobot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not a picture of his hand?

    1. Re:What's this picture for? by keenanvito · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It looks like it might have had his hand in the picture, but 'someone' cropped it out.

    2. Re:What's this picture for? by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe it only flew close to his hand and never touched it at all. He got burned by the speed/air/whatever, not the rock itself. But it could've felt like a hit because of the sheer speed.

  2. ein minuten bitte by spidercoz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FTA: "A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground."

    First, meteors aren't hot. Second, if a "pea-sized piece of rock" is going fast enough to make "a foot wide crater in the ground," it's not going to be "bouncing off" shit, least of all this kid's hand. It would tear through him like a shotgun slug. Was the kid's hand blown off? No? Then it didn't leave a fucking crater in the ground either. How about some photographs? Oh, there are none? Hmmm.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
    1. Re:ein minuten bitte by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, they're not hot. http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/meteoric.html

      Be careful using that bold.

  3. More likely shrapnel by rminsk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The injury was more likely from the debris kicked up from the impact of the meteor on the ground than the meteor directly striking him on the hand.

    1. Re:More likely shrapnel by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's pretty easy to invert the order when you're trying to remember events which were approximately only milliseconds apart. Especially so when you weren't expecting them to happen in the first place and so weren't paying close attention to the order.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    2. Re:More likely shrapnel by jefu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The wow factor of "It hit me then hit the ground" is also much better than "It hit the ground and a piece of ground hit me." Given a choice, I know which story I'd go with.

  4. Re:Count me a skeptic by SilverJets · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it was fast enough to leave an impact crater after hitting the ground, it would have shredded that kid's hand. I think it is more likely that the meteor hit the ground and the kid was hit with the stones and dirt that were tossed into the air.