14-Year-Old Hit by 30,000 MPH Space Meteorite

[PPI Brian]

There's a photo of Gerrit Blank, the German schoolboy whose hand was grazed by a speeding meteorite before the pebble-sized space rock struck the Earth. Blank has the three-inch scar...and scientists have the meteorite...to prove the one-in-a-million incident. How common is it for meteorites to strike people?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/06/12/German-teen-struck-by-meteorite/UPI-15761244834794/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31322855/ns/technology_and_science-space/

[PPI Tim]

Uber Lucky.

If that meteorite hit him at the center of his body he would be blown to bits.

[PPI Tracy]

What simply astounds me is that this kid was hit with debris that "bounced" off of him and was still traveling with such velocity that it put a foot crater into the earth.  In all actuality, that kid should be missing his hand, arm, and shoulder at the very least. 

[PPI Brian]

I agree: there's a certain amount of doubt in this story. The paper is probably exagerating the size and depth of the crater. But meteorite strikes have been documented before. Reports of deaths from meteorite strikes go back thousands of years to biblical times.

General info:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2002/jan/17/technology1

Alabama woman struck by meteorite November 1954
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite)
http://uanews.ua.edu/anews2004/nov04/meteorite112404.htm


Peeskill meteorite 1992:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekskill_meteorite
http://fireball.meteorite.free.fr/1992_10_09/Photo/photo_peekskill.html


August 18 2004:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1469655/Woman-hit-by-meteorite.html