'Meteorite' Hits Girl

BBC ^ | 8-27-2002

[blam]

Tuesday, 27 August, 2002, 12:27 GMT 13:27 UK

'Meteorite' hits girl

Siobhan Cowton: "I saw it fall from above roof height"

The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky.

This does not happen very often in Northallerton

Siobhan Cowton

Noticing it was "quite hot", she showed it to her father Niel.

The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University.

"I saw it fall from above roof height," Siobhan told BBC News Online.

"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava.

'Shiny'

"It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron.

"I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton."

Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself.

The stone may have come from Mars

"It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find," he said.

"It is worth a lot to Siobhan.

"We will have it mounted in a glass presentation case so she can keep it for the rest of her life.

"After all it is not every day you get hit by a meteorite.

"The odds of winning the Lottery are better."

The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University.

"It could be billions of years old and come from the earliest formation of the solar system," he told the Daily Mail newspaper.

Most meteors are between five and 60 centimetres (1.95 in and 1 ft 11.5 in) long, according to Durham University physical geography lecturer Dr Ben Horton.

"Sometimes they have shallow depressions and cavities," he said.

[Joe Hadenuf]

She says she saw it before it hit, which indicates a relatively slow speed. Still, if it hit thin skin over bone, it would sting, maybe even bruise.

Hehehe. I guess I am just suspicious by nature.

She saw it coming? Was it daylight out? An Iron meteor? Iron is heavy. Meteors are heavy, aren't they? No injury? Lucky young lady...That was a nice size meteor.....

[Contra]

Did you see that picture of her? I think it made her go bald.

[ArrogantBustard]

meteorites are generally heavy with iron content.

The object she is pictured holding does not look metallic. Stony meteorites ("carbonaceous chondrites") are much less dense.

[MassExodus]

I got to know the hospital pretty well.

No kidding, the last time I was standing at the E.R. reception desk ( bleeding ) my hospital record just scrolled along like one of these F.R. "Love you man" threads.

[KSCITYBOY]

Small pieces would slow to terminal velocity after being in the earths atmosphere for a short period of time. Big pieces would overcome air resistance due to their mass and carry their enertia all the way down.

[baseballfanjm]

I once read of an old woman who was hit by a space rock and it didn't hurt her too badly. I think it was a few inches in length. It has been a while since I read about it but I've seen the story from several sources. Anyway, it had to go through her roof first so it was no doubt slowed considerably.

[Shryke]

Sloth is right - a stone that small would NOT achieve amazing velocities, much less impressive velocities. The penny going through a taxi roof or making a hole in the street if dropped from a tall building is an urban legend and completely false. I would surmise that if the stone were solid nickel or iron it would hurt or damage her foot pretty badly, but if made of less dense material it would not.

[ArrogantBustard]

Small pieces would slow to terminal velocity

The piece in question, I think, qualifies as small. It is also irregularly shaped, and has a very rough surface. These two features would tend to give it a fairly low ballistic coefficient; and a fairly low terminal velocity. If it's also more stony than metallic, its lower density would also tend to reduce its terminal velocity.

AB

[mhking]

If it IS a meteor, shouldn't it have past through her foot on it's way to making a crater about 2 feet across?

Thank you!

I keep thinking about the scene at the beginning of Armageddon where the guy's dog gets wiped out in Manhattan...

[Sloth]

LOL, someday I will learn to automatically ignore anyone who cites something from the laughable Armageddon in a thread on science.

[Sloth]

Oops, that was supposed to be directed at Hellraiser, also

[aimhigh]

The stone may have come from Mars.

Those kids on Mars have great throwing arms.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The BBC has been hoaxed.

That stone would have removed her foot.

[pyx]

The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University.

It also could have rolled off the roof she just walked by on the way to the car.
How a rock on the surface of Mars magically reaches escape velocity for Mars and and then beelines it for Earth is something only a prof from a university in need of public funding could cook up.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I could hand throw a piece of iron that size, from 10 feet overhead, and if I hit you in the foot, your going to be doing the chicken. Hard to believe.......

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket....and your pants will catch on fire..."

[Grut]

It's always something!

But is it a meteorite? Meteorites, by definition, are meteors which strike the Earth's surface; every decade or so, one of these objects strikes a woman instead. Shouldn't they be called, say, misogynites?

[RightWhale]

I dropped a piece of angle iron on my foot once. I'm sure it cracked a bone, but it's okay now. The meteorite wasn't iron, just plain stone, more like pumice than solid rock.

[ArrogantBustard]

the beginning of Armageddon

That was a movie. You know, a work of fiction.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I agree. I demand to know the weight and composition of that floating meteor.