Objects falling from the sky in my other thread got me wondering:
Anyone out there know of any reported/authenticated (within this century, say) instances of someone being killed by a meteorite?
I don’t mean the big one that kluned Russia in '07 (or thereabouts), or the one that (possibly) wiped out the dinosaurs…but an actual case of some poor schlub who got hit by a fist-sized or smaller chunk of space debris.
“Can I join you ladies…into one big lady?” - Groucho Marx
IIRC, I once read about a woman who was washing dishes when a meteorite came crashing through ceiling, impacting the floor next to her and burning her leg on the way down. The same article also stated that there are no documented cases of a person being killed by a meteorite.
“I wept because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet. So I took his shoes” - Dave Barry
I remember seeing a black & white photograph of a very large bruise on the thigh of that very same lady. It struck her a glancing blow after coming through the roof and ceiling, but I don’t remember ever seeing any reference to a burn.
There is a meteorite in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, diplayed along with photographs of the garage, Model T Ford and the actual seat it went through on its way to ground. Nobody was killed and no eyewitnesses. (Darnit).
The source I read (of course I forgot what the source was) said a dog was killed by a meteorite in Egypt, but no people have ever been killed by one.
-Quadell