|
Last Thursday a meteorite may have hit a girl in North Yorkshire, UK, reports the Daily Mail. Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her home in Northallerton at 1030 GMT when a stone fell from the sky on her foot. Siobhan told the Daily Mail "I saw it fall from above roof height," and that she noticed it was quite hot.
The stone was described as having "a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava" and as being "shiny on one side and rusty as if it contained iron." The family now intend to take the stone to scientists at the University of Durham for analysis.
Dr Matthew Genge from the Natural History Museum, however, is doubtful that the stone really is a meteorite. "Although some meteorites contain bubbles, known as vesicles, these are exceedingly rare and although meteorites often contain metal it does not become rusty until exposed on the Earth's surface for some time." A veteran of meteorite enquiries at the Natural History Museum, Genge says that people often see stones falling from the sky. "More often than not there is an alternative explanation often involving human intervention. It is, however, understandable that people come to the conclusion these are meteorites."
Around 30 meteorites should fall in the UK each year, however, most of these go completely unnoticed. The last meteorite observed to fall and be recovered fell in Glatton near Peterborough in 1990.
More info: BBC Online Article
|
