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 No it's not a tabloid headline, on this day in engineering history, in Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, an 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) sulfide meteorite crashed through the roof of a house. The owner, Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges was hit in her living room after the meteorite bounced off her radio; fortunately, she received only a bad bruise. This is the only known case of a human being hit by a space rock.
A meteorite is a piece of iron, stone, or stony-iron composite which has fallen to Earth from outer space. Most meteorites are believed to have originated within the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and were once part of a planet or large asteroid. A few meteorites come from the Moon and Mars, and a few others may be fragments of comet material.
Meteorites fall randomly all over the earth; but since only a small portion of the earth is populated, not all of them are seen. Meteorites that are seen to fall, called "falls," can only occur in areas where people live. Meteorites that are found after they fall, sometimes many years later, are called "finds."
In the last 200 years, 145 meteorites have been verified to have fallen on the United States. In 2003, two meteorites fell in U.S. cities. On March 26, 2003, hundreds of fragments of a large meteorite fell in the Park Forest area of Chicago. Several fell through roofs of houses, and one punched a hole in the roof of the fire station. One large piece, weighing about 2.5 kg, crashed into a bedroom and narrowly missed a boy who was sleeping in his bed. On September 23, 2003, a 20 kg stone meteorite tore straight through a two-story house in New Orleans and came to rest in the basement. Since then, there has only been one witnessed U.S. fall: a small meteorite that fell in Orlando in 2004.
Resources:
http://www.aerolite.org/found-a-meteorite.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E4DA113CF931A25751C1A961958260
http://epswww.unm.edu/meteoritemuseum/virtualtour/world.htm
For previous poplular discussions on CR4 about Meterorites click below:
Meteorite Causes Illness in Peruvian Village - Andromeda Strain?
Comets and asteroids hitting Earth
Impact Velocity of a bus-sized asteroid....
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