Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000mph

news ^ | June 12, 2009

[FastCoyote]

[It wasn’t going 30,000mph when it hit him. His hand would have exploded if it had.]

You misread, actually the boy was going 30,000 mph.

[cripplecreek]

LOL yeah that makes a lot more sense.

[ArrogantBustard]

This one's bigger.

Pingualuit, near Kangirsukjuak, Quebec, Canada

[chimera]

Both very beautiful examples of an amazing natural phenomenon. Have you ever descended into the Meteor Crater (AZ)? You have to make special arrangements to do it but it's worth the trouble (and physical effort). They used to train Apollo astronauts at the bottom and there was (maybe still there?) a cutout model of an Apollo astronaut in EVA suit. It is utterly quiet, almost unreally so.

Is Pingualuit the former Chubb Crater? An early childhood memory is reading about it in the Childhood Britannica. The caption said the crater was full of water. Naturally, as a kid, I though that meant the meteor itself was filled with water, that just stayed in the crater when it hit. IIRC it is very deep, and that gives it the amazing blue color.

[Deaf Smith]

It was also a Magical Meteorite with healing properties...”as well as a three-inch scar on his hand”

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I visited meteor crater, but got no further than the museum and viewing terrace. I like that it’s still privately owned. I didn’t see the astronaut, but did see the wreckage of the plane that crashed there as well as the remains of Beringer’s “iron mine” derrick.

[ArrogantBustard]

Is Pingualuit the former Chubb Crater?

Yes ... it's very deep, on the order of 1400 ft, though not all of that is filled with water.

Never been in Barringer Crater. Seems like a great, and unique hike.

[jaydubya2]

"The white-hot meteorite..."

Meteorites are not "white-hot" by the time they reach the ground. Warm, maybe...

[NELSON111]

Yes, but then it should not have been described as having 'bounced off his hand'

Correct. NO WAY this was traveling at 30K MPH when it hit him. Even if it came close and the shock wave is what hurt him (as some have suggested)...a rock the size of a pea traveling at 30K will vaporize on impact. An object that size traveling at 30K MPH contains 900K joules of energy...which equates to about a 1/2 lb of exposives when it hits the ground.

[envisio]

I read it. I don’t believe a single word of it.

Bullcrap. Everyword.

Terminal velocity for something that size is about 100mph.
It would have burn up in the atmoshere.
There is not enough mass there to create a crater.
If and object had enough mass to do what the kid explained, the shockwave would have ripped his body apart.

I could go on......

These things hit Earth all day everyday. Most burn up. A few hit the ground. They hit the ground like an acorn out of a tree.

[piytar]

Actually, I shoot a lot. A .223 has a muzzle velocity of about 3,500 fps (have seen as low as about 2,500, and as high as 4,000). Now, 3,500fps / 5,280 feet/mile * 3,600 second/hour = about 2,386 mph (which I rounded to 2,500 mph).

Don’t do math much before smarting off, do you?

[piytar]

Yup, you’re probably right.

[envisio]

>>>>At 30,000 mph his hand would have exploded<<<<<

Along with everthing around him. The expanding air and shockwave would have ripped him to shreds. It is impossible for an object of that mass to go that fast through our atmosphere without propulsion.

[envisio]

hehe

[piytar]

Yup. Really big massive meteors can be going that fast when they hit (example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barringer_Crater), but pea sized ones? No way!

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Boy Hit By Meteorite Travelling At 30,000mph”

Man I thought I could ride my bike fast.....

[chimera]

It is that. The hike is arduous and you have to be young or in good shape, preferably both. It is rocky, high desert country, so you need good boots, and lots of water. You need permission from the owners and sign a liability waiver (lawyers again). I worked with a NASA geologist and so had some contacts to set it up. Here is a photo at the bottom showing the crater "mascot":

[Styria]

Maybe the boy got hit by impact debris instead.

[ThomasThomas]

You would think Sky.news could get their facts right concerning this subject. But isn’t it a meteor till it hits the ground.

[driftless2]

"can't figure out what happened"

Angry sparrows with machine-guns loaded with tiny rocks.

( Tip of the hat to Robin the Boy Wonder for that one.)