Saturday, June 13, 2009

13 June 2009

There is a story in the news of a German teenager being struck directly by a meteorite. This is the only instance I aware of that is given any credence that someone has been struck by anything from outer space that has not hit something else first. The only other instance of anyone ever being struck by a meteor is a woman in GA who was struck by a meteorite that came through her roof, bounced off the floor and then struck her in the hip causing a bruise and psychological trauma from all of the media attention.

The reports of this new incident say that the meteorite first struck the boy in the hand causing a 3" scar (burn or abrasion?) and then dug a foot-wide crater (how deep?) in the road (cement, asphalt, gravel, dirt? - there is a street lamp visible behind the boy in the picture so one would assume some kind of pavement although the area is heavily wooded and the street/road appears tan).

Is this a hoax? There is a picture of the boy but not the hand injury. The fourth article cited includes a picture of the boy's hand holding the meteorite over a macadam road. He has a bandage on his right thumb but there is no picture of the reported scar. The article does not mention a date so that the event can be corroborated with known meteorite entries or police blotter reports of others seeing a bright flash and hearing an explosive report. I wonder how a meteorite reported to be traveling at 30,000 MPH could hit a person at the end of an extremity and 'send them flying' while only causing a 3" scar and no reported bone or muscle damage.

[ In the article referenced below on Impact Lab there is a picture of the scar on the boy's left hand and an area of disturbed road surface. Still no information on when the event occurred. ]

Oh yeah, NASA had to scrub the STS-127 launch of the Shuttle on the next ISS construction mission this morning. It is because of the same hydrogen fuel leak problem they had two missions ago on STS-119. The new launch date us not before next Wednesday and more likely not until mid-July.

There was supposed to have been a Mag. -8 iridium flare visible from here tonight but unfortunately the only thing to be seen was clouds.

Posted by at