Phil calls his site bad astronomy because he set it up to debunk bad astronomy. Things like the moon landing conspiracy theories. He also has amusing movie reviews in which he points out where the movie got its science right and where the science is Bad.
It was a very small meteor(ite) - (picture)
From article: “The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser…”
Hmm… It was hot, it didn’t hurt when it hit her, and she saw it fall from roof height. From the looks of it, it could have come from the upstairs neighbor’s propane grill.
Whose definition? Yours? Every dictionary I’ve checked (well all right, both of them :)) says simply that a meteor is a falling chunk of rock and a meteorite is a fallen meteor. There is no special element of the definition that a meteor transforms instantly to meteorite from the instant of touching ground.
I’ve been known to wear only one glove sometimes. It’s hard to focus an eyepiece with gloves on.
Anyway, we’ve been discussing this on my own bulletin board (here, if you’re curious). My take on this is that it almost certainly isn’t a meteorite. It doesn’t sound like one from the story, and from the picture it doesn’t look like one. Here is an article I wrote about a very similar story, with many pertinent common threads (note: that article is sitting on a German server, and may be slow to load).
I also got in a long conversation with someone about the meteor vs. meteorite naming convention. What if it hits an airplane?
I decided, after much silliness, that the problem lies in our naming, and not the falling stars. We are trying to put a box around something that is inherently fuzzy, and it simply won’t fit. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Is Pluto a planet?
Arguing over it is missing the point. A rock by any other name would impact as sweetly.
