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Schoolboy Survives Meteor Strike

Red-hot chunk of rock traveling 30,000 miles an hour bounced off boy's hand

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 13, 2009 3:11 AM CDT

(Newser) – A 14-year-old German schoolboy survived with just a scar on his hand after being hit by a meteorite traveling 30,000 miles an hour, the Daily Telegraph reports. The red-hot pebble buried itself in the road after bouncing off Gerrit Blank, who doused it with a drink, dug it out of its crater, and took it to school. Tests confirmed that the pea-sized rock came from space.

"At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand," Blank said. "Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder.” An Alabama housewife hit by a meteorite in 1954 is the only other person known to have survived a meteor strike.

A meteorite, tracked on its fall from space by scientists, lies in the Sudan desert.
A meteorite, tracked on its fall from space by scientists, lies in the Sudan desert.   (AP Photo/NASA)
Around 3,000 meteorites hit the Earth daily, but strikes on humans are extremely rare.
Around 3,000 meteorites hit the Earth daily, but strikes on humans are extremely rare.   (Shutterstock)
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When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road. - Gerrit Blank

The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.
- Gerrit Blank

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
Riffran
Jun 14, 2009 2:14 AM CDT
best geuss is that it was a light indirect blow, at best, or the hand would have been more than "scarred"
hamsammichs
Jun 14, 2009 1:21 AM CDT
I don't understand how a rock traveling 30,000 mph merely bounces off your hand? Would it not go through the hand? Germans.
emptycalm
Jun 14, 2009 1:18 AM CDT
sup superman
 

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