4837121
story
Comments: 435 +- Science: 14-Year-Old Boy Smote By Meteorite on Friday June 12, @01:39PM
Posted
by
samzenpus
on Friday June 12, @01:39PM
from the a-grounding-doesn't-seem-that-bad-now dept.
from the a-grounding-doesn't-seem-that-bad-now dept.
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/articles/09/06/12/1651244-1-thumb.png); width:130px; height:97px;
space
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."
Related Stories
Life is like an egg stain on your chin -- you can lick it, but it still
won't go away.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.
Points for creativity (Score:5, Funny)
Great story to tell your parents after you've burned yourself with the crack pipe.
Re:Points for creativity (Score:5, Funny)
Pain signals travel through nerves at less than 10 feet per second
Can you imagine the early, renaissance-era experimental measurements of this quantity?
"I'm going to need two men. One very tall, the other very short. Without shoes. And I'll need two hammers."
Parent
Re:Points for creativity (Score:5, Informative)
If it were simply dropped within the atmosphere with no impetus, yes - it'd hit terminal velocity.
But if it actually came from space, it could have been traveling hellaciously fast, been slowed down somewhat by the atmosphere, but by no means just down to whatever terminal velocity would be.
Think about it this way - if you fire a gun from the top of a building, the bullet would still hit faster than terminal velocity because it had something propelling it. Same for a meteorite.
Parent
Re:Points for creativity (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
What's this picture for? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's this picture for? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:What's this picture for? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:What's this picture for? (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.
Parent
Today... (Score:5, Funny)
FML.
What kind of superpowers does he have now? (Score:5, Funny)
Is he like Magneto?
Re:What kind of superpowers does he have now? (Score:4, Funny)
Clearly he is some sort of Cylon or Terminator as the magnetic rock was attracted to him...
Curiously it his his hand, which means either Luke Skywalker or a certain state alchemist...
So I am a bit torn as to if we should mob him or not. Better burn him just to be sure. Probably a witch anyway.
Also if he was like Magneto, he would probably make the meteor not hit him I would guess. Which would make him sort sort of Anti-Magneto, his arch nemesis. Which ironically are quite common and Magneto doesn't really like them either. Unless you are in a alternative universe, in which case the opposite would be true.
Its Friday and I am ready to go home now... :)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
quote (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, there was a 99.9999% of it killing him!
Seriously, surely the odds of being struck are much smaller than one in a million? Isn't it closer to one in a few billion, since there's a population of 6 billion and only 2 occurrences?
Re:quote (Score:5, Funny)
Him: Do you know how much stuff would have to be just right for that to happen? It'd be like hitting the lottery.
Me: People hit the lottery every week.
Checkmate.
Parent
Re:quote (Score:5, Funny)
"If we can hit that bulls-eye then all the dominoes will fall like a house of cards, checkmate!" --Zapp Brannigan
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
However, it is a well known fact that one in a million chances happen 9 times out of 10.
yikes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yikes (Score:5, Funny)
The gods couldn't take him out, so what chance do we have?
Parent
Re:yikes (Score:5, Funny)
the gods or whatever clearly hate this kid, maybe we should take the hint and finish him off
He survived geting hit ny a meteor.
He's too powerful for us.
Parent
What is more... (Score:5, Funny)
What is more amazing is that it struck a 14-year-old German. I didn't think these things existed anymore; I thought all Germans were over 40 by now.
Re: (Score:3)
Clones.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Not you, I was talking to number 12392
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Him? He died in a freak meteor accident.
Re:What is more... (Score:4, Funny)
How was I to know? All you clones look the same to me.
Parent
Count me a skeptic (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Count me a skeptic (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.
Parent
ein minuten bitte (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:ein minuten bitte (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, they're not hot. http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/meteoric.html [badastronomy.com]
Be careful using that bold.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
More likely shrapnel (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More likely shrapnel (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re:More likely shrapnel (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Bar conversations (Score:5, Funny)
This guy now automatically wins all bar scar-comparing competitions (when he's allowed to go in a bar, that is).
See this? My cat attacked me, gashed my wrist all the way to the bone.
That's nothing. Look here, rabid racoon, I had to be quarantined for days.
Child's play. Look at this, shot myself with a nail gun, stumbled back and stepped on a rake.
Oh yeah? Well God shot me with a meteorite.
Bad Astronomy Post on This (Score:5, Informative)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/ [discovermagazine.com]
Short story is that it's possible (although not as presented in the media right now), but be skeptical.
Lightning shaped scar (Score:5, Funny)
Watch out chilluns (Score:4, Informative)
Curiously, a British girl was hit in the foot [bbc.co.uk] by a meteorite a few years ago. Is this tit for tat in a new grudge war between the two rivals?
"Smitten", not "smote" (Score:5, Informative)
... unless the boy as doing the smiting.
Re:"Smitten", not "smote" (Score:5, Informative)
I was kind of curious on the choice of the word Smote in the title as well.
Smote: past of smite
1: to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement held in the hand
2 a: to kill or severely injure by smiting
b: to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously
3: to cause to strike
4: to affect as if by striking [children smitten with the fear of hell â" V. L. Parrington]
5: captivate, take [smitten with her beauty]
intransitive verb: to deliver or deal a blow with or as if with the hand or something held
The title would have me believe that this meteorite was hurled by someone or someone smacked the kid with this meteorite by holding it in their hand.
By using smitten, the kid would be awe struck, or wondrous toward the meteorite but not necessarily physically hit by it.
Parent
odds (Score:4, Insightful)
2 people hit out of 6 billion in the world, so odds are 1 in 3 billion or the PDOOMA 1 in 1 million FTA
what are the odds that either the androgynous boy or some reporter made the whole thing up?
Pic of hand, pea-meteorite and impact (Score:4, Informative)
Back in my days (Score:4, Funny)
...the dog ate my homework was good enough!
if you look closely at the picture (Score:5, Funny)
it seems the meteorite has made him grow to 4-5 times the size of cars next to him
i saw this in a 1950s science documentary involving a woman who grew 50 feet tall and deranged from this sort of tragic accident
BWAHAHAHAHA BULLSHIT (Score:4, Insightful)
Pea-sized? That's about 9mm or even larger depending upon the cultivar. I've seen peas the size of .50 caliber rounds (about 12.7mm) and at the 30,000mph in TFAHL that would not only rip the boy's hand off but probably break the bones up to his elbow from the shock. Even at 400mph it would do way more than that. Also, to be pea-sized and make a crater that large, it would have to have more mass than it should have since it's supposedly composed of primarily ferrous material.
And I doubt 30,000MPH. Maybe 250 at best.
But this *IS* the Telegraph. Not exactly a reliable source of news. I'm surprised this actually made it here.
Tough hands! (Score:4, Insightful)
The meteor bounced off his hand then made a foot-wide crater in the road? Wow! He's got tough hands!
Oh, wait... Maybe the injury to his hand was caused by a debris fragment from the road impact. That would actually make sense.
Original Source (Score:5, Informative)
Well, and I don't know where the details in TFA here posted came from. Actually, the german article states some facts differently (I'll try a translation, umlauts were replaced by me, because /. sucks at Unicode):
"Erst habe ich nur einen grossen, weissen Lichtkegel gesehen. Meine Hand hat weh getan, dann hat es geknallt."
"First I saw only a big, white cone of light. My hand hurt, then there was a bang."
"Nachdem ich das weisse Licht gesehen habe, habe ich an meiner Hand etwas gespuert. Ich denke, dass mich der Meteorit gestreift hat. Vielleicht war es aber auch nur die Hitze", berichtet er und zeigt den Ruecken seiner linken Hand. Die rund zehn Zentimeter lange Brandwunde ueberdeckt bereits eine Kruste. "Das Geraeusch, das folgte, klang wie das Reissen einer Steinplatte und war ziemlich laut", erinnert sich Gerrit und deutet auf den kleinen Kreis aufgeplatzten Asphalts zu seinen Fuessen.
"After I saw the white light, I felt something at my hand. I think, the meteorite streaked me. But maybe it was only the heat." he reported and shows the back of his left hand. A brand around 10 centimeters long is already covered by an eschar. "The sound that followed, sounded like a paver being ripped apart and it was pretty loud", he comemorates and points to a small circle of burst open bitumen by his feet.
END OF TRANSLATION
There's also a picture where one can see the "crater" in front: http://www.derwesten.de/nachrichten/staedte/essen/2009/6/10/news-122286237/imageshow.html?resourceId=picture23923142 [derwesten.de] (the caption reads: "Gerrit Blank shows his brand and the meteorite that streaked him, while it was falling, near the "crater".
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
...and that meteorite is the best he can do?
I would've expected a press conference [theonion.com], at least...
Re:skeptical (Score:4, Informative)
Well, the "meteorite" was magnetic, which implies either a high iron content or a high nickel content. Either one is shiny. Surely the sun reflecting off the "meteorite" could explain the "streak of light".
Seriousoy, though... can you please do the calculation that proves for a meteor of some diameter N, and some density M, it is impossible for the meteor to enter the atmosphere at some speed O, at an angle P, that would result in the meteorite not being cool to the touch at elevation Q? Please account for atmospheric and local weather conditions. Or, you could link to a source with the required info.
See, here's the thing... most meteors enter the atmosphere obliquely, which results in a long path of travel before touchdown (if they don't burn up completely). But just assume that it's possible for a meteor to not hit obliquiely (and factoring in rotation, etc)... surely it is possible for a meteor of sufficient density and size to be traveling at higher than terminal velocity, and above normal temperature, when it hits the surface (or a teen standing on the surface).
Parent
Re:skeptical (Score:5, Informative)
How the [File System Check] does stupidity of this level get modded up?
As much as I hate replying (twice!) to AC's, I feel compelled to go to the trouble of a Google search.
Meteorite Myths [meteorites.com.au] (cribbed in turn from space.com, apparently)
"All of these things together mean that not only is the rock not hot when it hits the ground, it can actually be very cold. Some meteorites (what a meteoroid is called after it impacts) have actually been found covered in frost!"
Parent
Re:Red flags (Score:4, Funny)
Another example, shoot a bullet straight up*...
Are you just trying to see how many of the dumber /.ers you can kill? Cause I hear you can get a higher % return at digg.
(ack the low blow for comedy's sake)
Parent