Boy says he was hit by meteorite

LONDON - A 14-year-old German boy claims he survived a direct hit from a meteorite that crashed into the Earth, according to the Telegraph.

Gerrit Blank was walking to school when he says he saw a "ball of light" in the sky and then he felt a pain in his hand. "Then a split second after that, there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder," Blank said. "The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards."

The rock then crashed to the ground and created a foot-wide crater. Blank was left with a three-inch scar on his hand.

But questions are surfacing about the validity of Blank's story. The Telegraph reports that the meteorite entered the Earth at more than 30,000 miles per hour. But could Blank have even survived that? "If it had been moving that fast a direct hit would've killed him," writes Discovery.com. "That speed is about ten times faster than a rifle bullet, and had it actually hit him at that velocity a rock the size of a pea would've torn a hole through him the size of a basketball. Now, it's possible the meteorite simply barely grazed him, but the article isn't clear."

Discovery also wonders whether the boy was hit by the meteorite first, or if the meteorite hit the ground and Blank was simply hit by shrapnel. It also mentions that even though media reports state that Ansgar Kortem, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, says it was indeed a meteorite, Kortem himself told Dutch science writer Govert Schilling that he was misquoted.

Most meteors that head toward Earth vaporize in the atmosphere, creating what are commonly known as "shooting stars." There have been instances of meteors hitting cars and houses, but humans are more rare. Space.com reports some of the more famous incidents:

• On Nov. 30, 1954 , Alabama housewife Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her couch when she was awakened by a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor that crashed through the roof of her house, bounced off a piece of furniture and struck her in the hip, causing a large bruise.
• On Oct. 9, 1992 , a large fireball was seen streaking over the eastern United States, finally exploding into many pieces. In Peekskill, N.Y., one of the pieces struck a Chevrolet automobile owned by Michelle Knapp. Knapp was not in the car at the time.
• On June 21, 1994 , Jose Martin of Spain was driving with his wife near Madrid when a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor crashed through his windshield, bent the steering wheel and ended up in the back seat.