30,000mph Meteorite Hits German Teenager

"You've more chance of being struck by a meteorite" goes the old saying, making German teen Gerrit Blank either particularly lucky or very unlucky.  The fourteen year old was hit on the hand by a falling pea-sized meteorite, apparently traveling at up to 30,000mph and hitting the ground with enough force to produce "an enormous bang like a crash of thunder" and knock Blank off his feet.

Blank had a lucky escape, though: despite the metorites' potential for damage, he walked away with a three-inch long scar on his hand.  Scientists have examined the rock and declared it authentic.

"At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder.  The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road" Gerrit Blank

Most meteoritesafterwardmeteorites apparently burn up in the atmosphere, with six out of the seven that make it through landing out at sea.  The only other person known to have survived a meteorite strike is a woman in Alabama, USA, who had one crash through her roof land on her in 1954 while she slept.