Ah found a meaty-yer!
Posted on 10/21/2006 10:18:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BERLIN (Reuters) - A fire that destroyed a cottage near Bonn and injured a 77-year-old man was probably caused by a meteor and witnesses saw an arc of blazing light in the sky, German police said on Friday.
Burkhard Rick, a spokesman for the police in Siegburg east of Bonn, said the fire gutted the cottage and badly burned the man's hands and face in the incident on October 10.
"We sought assistance from Bochum observatory and they noted that at that particular moment the earth was near a field of meteoroid splinter and it could be assumed that particles had entered the atmosphere," he said.
"The particles usually don't reach the surface because they disintegrate in the atmosphere," he added. "But some can make it to the ground. We believe this was a bolide (meteoric fireball) with a size of no more than 10 mm."
So would this be what the insurers call "an act of God" ?
Talk about extraordinary bad luck----
It's Bush's fault!
Just thought I'd get that in there before Katie Couric did.
Actually, that could be a piece of extreme good fortune. I'm not certain of what German law is on this subject, but, if something with no clear delineation of ownership falls from the sky and onto your property, don't you now own it?
And if you own it, wouldn't it be possible to sell said piece of meteorite to any museum, university or scientific entity that was willing to pay for it for the purposes of research?
And if someone is willing to pay for it, you could probably turn a tidy sum for it, I would imagine.
10 mm bolide? Questionable. That might be the largest remining piece since a bolide would usually be a stony meteorite that explodes with a tremendous flsh of light and sometimes a sound. The pieces reaching the ground would not be hot. However, a piece of reentering space vehicle could well be hot.
neener neener neener!
LOL. What's the difference, 14 seconds?
Ah found a meaty-yer!
I saw zero Orionids last night. Probably the somewhat intense aurora washed out the sky too much. I had trouble finding Orion itself until the aurora moved over a little.
Nothing this interesting ever happens to me....
Didn't the volcano count???
If it's big enough, which it sounds like, he could sell the meteor for more than enough to build a new cottage and his hospital bills.
Sorry teacher, but a meteor burned my homework.
FWIW, the Discovery channel ran a piece on a fellow who makes a living from collecting and selling metorites - had quite the display.
The felow claims he can more for a metorite - per ounce than gold. SO at 600/oz, the German guy would need to recover something the size of a large brirk to replace his home....
Troisdorf/Bonn (dpa) - which impact small meteorites has after conviction of the Ermittler an unusual fire in a Schrebergarten hut in Troisdorf with Bonn caused. ÂAfter consultation with experts a projectile from the universe is "the most probable cause of fire", confirmed the police victory castle (North Rhine-Westphalia). All other causes could be excluded after comprehensive determinations. The rock, which had heated itself with the entrance into the terrestrial atmosphere, was however not found.
After representation of the police observed reliable witnesses also "an unusual leuchterscheinung in the sky directly before the fire emergence observes, which as small glowing body direction soil had moved". By the fire, which already occurred on 8 October, a 77-jaehriger man, who was in the hut, suffered fire injuries at face and hands. A deliberate fire putting could have been excluded, communicated the police. Also technical causes or a chemical self inflammation would not be applicable.
The witness data concerning the optical phenomenon would have arranged the Ermittler to speak with the observatory Bochum. From there was communicated, "that the earth at the event time in the proximity of a meteorite fragment field was and the entrance of particles into the terrestrial atmosphere was to be expected". These particles, which usually do not reach the ground, but in the atmosphere glowing, could have arrived isolated nevertheless up to the soil and have released by its large heat also a fire.
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