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Posted by: MahFL Jun 12 2009, 04:31 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090612/sc_space/boyhitbymeteorite

Posted by: djellison Jun 12 2009, 05:00 PM

Glances off his hand...then makes a 1ft wide crater.

Yeah.

Right.

Posted by: helvick Jun 12 2009, 05:36 PM

There's so much wrong with this reporting that I don't know where to start. The thing that hit the ground might well be a meteorite - someone who is [a] trustworthy] and [b] has some technical ability to identify meteorites and [c] actually has it to test would be able to tell for certain but for the sake of argument let's just assume that it is. The problems with the rest of the story are numerous though. For starters if it was red hot, visible as a ball of light heading to our victim and then went on to make a "foot wide crater" in the ground it would have left very little of his hand behind if he had been hit by it. Secondly it's extremely unlikely that it would hit the ground still glowing or that a "ball of light" would be visible heading towards you. Thirdly for something to make a foot wide hole in the ground it has to pack a lot of energy - a pea sized meteorite reaching the ground is not going to do that unless the road in question was a bowl of very fine dust and even then it's a major stretch.

If he was hit\near the impact of something that was glowing so much that there was a visible "ball of light", made a foot wide hole in the ground and he saw it coming in at anything other than straight down from above then I would call the cops and start look for someone who had fired it at him.

Posted by: stevesliva Jun 12 2009, 06:04 PM

The Telegraph definitely has more embellishment than the space.com article. Neither article really adds up to plausible. The kid's firsthand comments on what happened are also implausible.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/

Posted by: MahFL Jun 12 2009, 06:05 PM

The telegraph article does say he has a nasty 3 inch gash on his hand, which is pretty big for a 14 year olds hand.

Edit, scar looks like 1.5 inches not 3.

Posted by: MahFL Jun 12 2009, 06:11 PM

Scar and pea sized meteorite.......

Posted by: stevesliva Jun 12 2009, 06:13 PM

I see that teenage boys in Germany also have terrible haircuts.

Posted by: PDP8E Nov 18 2009, 04:55 PM

From the PR office of THE MARS IRON WORKS
...obviously this one slipped by us....

Kansas father, son suspect meteorite landed at home
AP - Tue Nov 17, 9:18 pm ET

LIBERAL, Kan. – A father and son have an extraterrestrial explanation for the strange rock that recently landed in their backyard in southwest Kansas. They are convinced it's a meteorite. Chandler Harp, 10, was playing in the backyard of his Liberal home when he heard what sounded like an explosion about 15 feet from where he was standing. He looked over to see a plume of dirt and debris shoot 5 feet high. At the bottom of a foot-deep hole, he found a 2-inch rock and showed it to his dad, Lee. Once Lee Harp got a look at the metallic rock, he was certain it wasn't from this world. He said, "I knew he had a meteorite."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJOrinibqG10J3A3j0hAPk7r7wkQD9C1HJJ80