12 June 2009

Teenager struck by meteorite


Interesting not just for the "wow" factor, but for the amount of weak science and frank misinformation that tends to accompany the report in various published versions. Some versions claim that the meteorite was travelling 30,000 mph when it hit the boy, that it bounced off his hand and afterwards created a foot-wide crater in the pavement, that it was glowing white-hot as it struck him, that the odds are "1 in a million" of being hit, etc.

Reliable information re meteorites from the American Meteor Society.

Reddit discussion.

Photo credit.

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