# You could always be hit by a meteorite **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 29, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922 "2007-03-29T01:48:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/1 "2007-03-29T01:48:20Z")
That’s what we used to say in high school when discussing the dangers of one thing or another. Stuff happens. [It almost happened to a Chilean airliner](http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/russia-hits-back-at-space-blunder-claim/2007/03/29/1174761621087.html): > [@](#): > > A Chilean jetliner approaching New Zealand came within 20 seconds of being hit by blazing objects hurtling down to Earth, New Zealand aviation officials say. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/2 "2007-03-29T01:55:00Z")
\*You could always be hit by a meteorite In a plane flying over New Zealand tonight, Blown to bits by a stray carbonaceous chondrite; Or would you rather be a mule?\* ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/3 "2007-03-29T02:01:12Z")
While I do respect the threat of meteorites, the plane story doesn’t really get the juices flowing for me. If the plane was travelling at 500 mph on a direct straight line interception with the meteorite, it would still be over 2.5 miles away when it struck. More likely, it would have just hit within a couple of miles of the plane in any part of a semi-circle which makes the near miss not really a near miss at all because the area described is so great. I know that there have been houses even in the U.S. struck by one. I think there was even a dog in Egypt. However, the only person I have ever heard about getting hit was some boyfriend on Northern Exposure. Still, it is true that one could just drop down from the sky and kill any one of us at any moment. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/4 "2007-03-29T02:16:45Z")
Someone was hit by a dog in Egypt? [Alabama woman struck by meteorite](http://www.xenophilia.com/zb0005.htm) – even in the 1950s God still enjoyed screwing with the South every so often. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/5 "2007-03-29T02:22:44Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] However, the only person I have ever heard about getting hit was some boyfriend on Northern Exposure. [/QUOTE] [Ann Hodges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Hodges) > [@](#): > > Ann Elizabeth Hodges (1923 - 1972) of Sylacauga, Alabama is the only person of record to have been hit by a meteorite. On November 30, 1954, she was napping on her living room couch when a grapefruit-sized meteoroid crashed through the roof of her house. It bounced off her large wooden console radio, destroying it, and struck her on the arm and hip. She was badly bruised but able to walk. [UA Museum to Observe 50th Anniversary of Hodges Meteorite](http://uanews.ua.edu/anews2004/nov04/meteorite112404.htm) > [@](#): > > TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – One of the world’s most famous rocks – a meteorite that struck an Alabama woman 50 years ago this month – is the subject of a Nov. 30 presentation sponsored by The University of Alabama’s Alabama Museum of Natural History, home to the legendary stone. > > The “Hodges Meteorite” fell from the sky on Nov. 30, 1954, punching a hole in the roof of a house in the Oak Grove community, near Sylacauga, smashing a wooden radio cabinet and then landing on 31-year-old Ann Hodges, as she lay dozing on her couch. The meteorite, which weighed about 8.5 pounds, hit Hodges’ hand and hip and caused extensive bruising, according to published reports from the period. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/6 "2007-03-29T11:44:53Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] However, the only person I have ever heard about getting hit was some boyfriend on Northern Exposure. [/QUOTE] IIRC that was a satellite, not a meteorite. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/7 "2007-03-29T12:00:37Z")
[QUOTE=TPWombat] IIRC that was a satellite, not a meteorite. [/QUOTE] Yeah, and that girl from _Dead Like Me_ was hit by a space station toilet seat. What?.. You mean in real life?.. Oh. ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/8 "2007-03-29T16:34:32Z")
Huh! We always say, “yeah… and you could get hit by a Bud truck tomorrow…” We had to change it to Yuengling since the plant is around the corner. Got a better chance of that than the meteorite! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/9 "2007-03-29T17:23:32Z")
> [@](#): > > The meteorite, which weighed about 8.5 pounds, hit Hodges’ hand and hip and caused extensive bruising, according to published reports from the period. Woah, getting hit by a meteorite _and_ having your period documented? Bummer. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-could-always-be-hit-by-a-meteorite/397922/10 "2007-03-29T21:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=Boggette] Huh! We always say, “yeah… and you could get hit by a Bud truck tomorrow…” [/QUOTE] An old girlfriend of mine once saw an ice cream truck speeding through a neighbourhood (with the music speeded up – Why? For effect?). So she said, ‘You could always get run over by an ice cream truck.’