Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000mph

Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000mph

news.sky.com

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Amazing!
What are the odds?
I'm sure the odds are a lot higher than getting struck by lightning.

He was lucky because just imagine if the meteorite would have hit in the head or abdomen area.

Since he is unhurt except for his thumb, he sure has a great story to tell in the future along with a cool souvenir.

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Search "hit by meteor"

www.belowtopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

My bad but the search criteria I put in did not show this article.
ATS really does need to improve their search function.

Something is strange about this story. Something moving so fast is impossible to deflect, especially with your hand. To make it change course doesn't seem feasible.

Try deflecting a bullet with your hand without having it rip through. It doesn't work. This is way faster than a bullet.

LOL if you were hit by a grain of sand traveling 30,000mph there wouldn't be enough left of you to ID via dental records. Foot wide impact crater

More likely it slowed to terminal velocity after coming through the atmosphere and gave him his finger boo-boo.

allegedly; while confirmed by several family members.

My great aunt was out gardening in Jersey city during the 50's at dusk.
The story goes she was bending down to mess with the hose
when a small extra terrestrial ball (golf ball sized) of iron blazed right thru
her "beehive" type hairdo, and shot through the wood frame substructure under the house
... She made the local papers, the story goes on to say that several
groups of scientists fought long and hard for possession of the artifact.

Anyhow I just wanted to share that, I tend to believe it considering a few sources in the family and their character, nice find OP.

How does a meteor hit a boy in the hand, just giving him a "boo-boo" for someone to kiss, and yet tears a foot long scar in the pavement AFTER it *bounces* off his hand.

Wait a second...
Oh...my...gawd...we've found him! Superman does exist!

WE'RE SAVED!!

30,000 MPH? impossible..his habnd would been vaporized or ripped off his hand. It physically impossible for a rock traveleing tht fast to simply bounce off his hand, then re gian speed and make a foot crater. unless..just by chance, his hand jsut slightly touched the outer edge of it, giving him the sensation it bounced off his hand, as it continued to the ground. Their was aklot happeneing in such shrot a time frame that he could have watche everything as it happened! Its impossible, this sounds jsut like the governments magic bullet theory with the JFK assassination...the bullet entered, did some bogus loopty loop tricks, turned a few degree angles, did a 360 full, hitting the front seat senators hand, then bouncign off and entering the presidents brain... IMPOSSIBLE

Even after the meteorite slows down when entering the Earth's atmosphere, it's still too powerful to just slighty scrape the boy's hand and create a hole that size. This is science so I don't undestand why no one has really spoken up about the details yet. Surely something this spectacular and rare would generate immediate explanationsnfrom the science world.

How did they find that tiny little meteorite after it blew up all that pavement and probably got lodged in the ground? Forget looking for a needle in a haystack, that's like trying to find one specific piece of hay...

I find it hard to believe that it only left a small scare on his hand yet left a big creator on the road?

Doesnt add up!

Mikey

reply to post by fbnks


I'm in complete agreement with previous posters and would like to state that some of the laws of physics would have to be completely re-written if the article was true. A solid projectile travelling at anywhere near the speed reported does NOT bounce of a hand made of soft tissue and tear a huge gouge in the ground !

30,000 MPH ???? where's the guaranteed sonic boom ?

Also, how about the kinetic energy ?

Lets assume:
a mass of 100gms = 0.1 kgs;
a velocity of 30,000MPH = 13,300 meters/sec

So the KE would be approx
0.5 x 0.1 x 13,300 x 13,300 = 8.844 MegaJoules

And this bounced of his hand !!!!! Bu**Sh** !!!

reply to post by fbnks


Yes, there is something up with this story, and ZombieOctopus hit it on the head.

Meteorites, when they hit the ground are usually traveling at free-fall velocity, which is more like 300MPH than 30,000MPH. The surviving rock would never have had enough energy to make the crater in the news article. It's too small. IMO this story was made up.

The reaction by the scientific community has also been that this was made up by the boy...

Here's another link with a few more factoids:
www.space.com...

why are ya'll taking the word "bounce" so literally? do you actually expect the boy to be able to define what happened?

either a meteorite hit his hand or it didn't. it doens't make any difference whether or not he used the correct terms to describe the event.

reply to post by Moodle


If it caused the damage reported to the ground and came anywhere near his thumb, the heat generated would have vaporized it. The shock wave from the sonic boom would have killed him. The shrapnel from the exploding road would have torn him to pieces.

If it hit him, it wasn't fast enough to make the crater. If it made the crater, it didn't hit him first. Simple as that.

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


Free-fall is just over 100mph, and its most likely it just winged him, or he's lying.

reply to post by The Last Man on Earth


Actually, it's closer to 300MPH than 100MPH if you want to nit-pick.

A meteorite may survive its atmospheric flight and may perhaps then be found if at least part of the body is decelerated from its entry velocity down to its free-fall terminal velocity of about 100 m/s.

Source: IMO

100 m/s = ~224MPH

I doubt it even winged him. Something like this happening is extremely rare. He probably bought the meteorite on ebay.