it will happen and on December 1st 1954 it happened to Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges.
Asleep on her couch in Sylacauga, Alabama she had no idea it was about to happen
to her.
A meteorite came hammering through her roof, through her living room ceiling
and via a rather disastrous detour via her radio struck her on the hip.
This lump of space debris weighed 8.5 pounds and was seven inches in length
and given its roundabout route to striking her did not kill her.
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This rather flies in the face of some
statistics... |
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She did end up with a rather nasty bruise on her leg and hip to show those
who were curious to see the first modern meteorite strike of a human being.
This rather flies in the face of some statistics suggesting you are more likely
to be struck by a meteor than you are win the National Lottery. It would liven
up the winners report though if they did list the winners of the booby-prize
(i.e. those hit by meteors that week.)
ancient
history
The Ancient Chinese always keen on things celestial did record a number of
instances of people being injured or killed by space debris.
The Egyptians were never far behind and in 1911 can claim to a dog being killed
by a meteorite.
Now none of this is very exciting when compared with the impacts which are
meant to be the cause of mass extinction every 65 million or so years.
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I mean what are you going to do if a
meteorite wipes out humanity... |
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Still whilst we keep having listening to those that seem to thing the destruction
of mankind by a meteor strike is something to worry about (I mean what are you
going to do if a meteorite wipes out humanity in the next 24 hours and are you
going to care 48 hours later?) here are a few facts for the fun of it care of
NASA.
the
odds
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| CAVANDERS, ANCIENT
CHINESE [1926] |
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Although thousands of meteorites bombard the earth every year most are burnt
up within the atmosphere and only a few hundred make it to the surface.
This reads a bit like a good news, bad news story as about once every month
a meteor about the size of a basketball hits the earth. The good news is 75%
of the earths surface is water and that is where they usually end up.
It is estimated every 100,000 an impact will occur which can alter the earths
climate.
The most famous impact was one that did not happen. The Tunguska impact was
an air burst some 5 miles above the surface. Fortunately it hit the Russian
Tundra. Estimated at 200 feet in diameter and some 100,000 tons it destroyed
an area the size of Rhode Island and killed everything within 20 miles (which
was wildlife basically) and blew down a lot of trees in a radial pattern.
The very people that usually get excited about these things are often not satisfied
with the impact theory and are keener to consider it more likely to have been
a nuclear powered alien space ship exploding. Some people are never happy.
It is calculated that such things only happen every million years. So rather
like the hundred year floods we get every month in the UK now, we can expect
another impact any time soon.
