Telegraph.co.uk reports that a boy in Germany claims to have been struck in the hand by a small meteorite, which “knocked [him] flying” before leaving a foot-wide crater in the ground.
I’m not an astronomer, but the story sounded fishy to me (including the “fact” that the meteorite was travelling at an incredible 30,000 mph). Luckily, Phil Plait IS an astronomer (albeit a “Bad” one), and he throws some great analysis towards this questionable tale.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
SWEET MERCIFUL HEAVENS,
is this really the way the world ends?!?!?!
Review by John C. Snider © 2009
We’ve all read the nightmare scenarios: a massive asteroid is going to slam into the earth unless a team of hastily-gathered astronauts can land on it and blow it to smithereens; the sun belches out a particularly energetic tongue of solar material that threatens to boil us in our own juices; or a rogue black hole comes sauntering through the solar system and sucks up the earth like it was the last slurp of milkshake in the bottom of the glass. Sure, it’s scary fun, but how realistic are these imaginings? For that matter, how likely are they? How will the world end, anyway?
We interview Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy blogger, new president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, booster for the International Year of Astronomy, and author of the pop-science book Death from the Skies. Yes, he is busy. [Late-breaking news: Bad Astronomy was just named as one of the Top 25 blogs in the world by Time magazine!]
