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There are, however, many false alarms about meteorite fall s. Most observers of a bright fireball conclude that part of it hit the ground, but that is rarely the case. Every few months news outlets report that a meteorite has been implicated in the start of a fire. Such stories have always proved to be wrong. The meteorite is ice-cold in space, and most of its interior remains cold even after its brief fiery plunge through the atmosphere. A freshly fallen meteorite is more likely to acquire a coating of frost than to start a fire.
People sometimes discover unusual-looking rocks that turn out to be meteoritic; these rocks are termed meteorite finds . Now that the public has become meteorite-conscious, many unusual fragments, not all of which turn out to be from space, are sent to experts each year. Some scientists divide these objects into two categories: “meteorites” and “meteorwrongs.” Outside Antarctica (see the next paragraph), genuine meteorites turn up at an average rate of 25 or so per year. Most of these end up in natural history museums or specialized meteoritical laboratories throughout the world ( [link] ).
Since the 1980s, sources in the Antarctic have dramatically increased our knowledge of meteorites. More than ten thousand meteorites have been recovered from the Antarctic as a result of the motion of the ice in some parts of that continent ( [link] ). Meteorites that fall in regions where ice accumulates are buried and then carried slowly to other areas where the ice is gradually worn away. After thousands of years, the rock again finds itself on the surface, along with other meteorites carried to these same locations. The ice thus concentrates the meteorites that have fallen both over a large area and over a long period of time. Once on the surface, the rocks stand out in contrast to the ice and are thus easier to spot than in other places on our rocky planet.
Although meteorites fall regularly onto Earth’s surface, few of them have much of an impact on human civilization. There is so much water and uninhabited land on our planet that rocks from space typically fall where no one even sees them come down. But given the number of meteorites that land each year, you may not be surprised that a few have struck buildings, cars, and even people. In September 1938, for example, a meteorite plunged through the roof of Edward McCain’s garage, where it became embedded in the seat of his Pontiac Coupe ( [link] ).
In November 1982, Robert and Wanda Donahue of Wethersfield, Connecticut, were watching M*A*S*H* on television when a 6-pound meteorite came thundering through their roof, making a hole in the living room ceiling. After bouncing, it finally came to rest under their dining room table.
Eighteen-year-old Michelle Knapp of Peekskill, New York, got quite a surprise one morning in October 1992. She had just purchased her very first car, her grandmother’s 1980 Chevy Malibu. But she awoke to find its rear end mangled and a crater in the family driveway—thanks to a 3-pound meteorite. Michelle was not sure whether to be devastated by the loss of her car or thrilled by all the media attention.
In June 1994, Jose Martin and his wife were driving from Madrid, Spain, to a golfing vacation when a fist-sized meteorite crashed through the windshield of their car, bounced off the dashboard, broke Jose’s little finger, and then landed in the back seat. Before Martin, the most recent person known to have been struck by a meteorite was Annie Hodges of Sylacauga, Alabama. In November 1954, she was napping on a couch when a meteorite came through the roof, bounced off a large radio set, and hit her first on the arm and then on the leg.
The fireball that exploded at an altitude of about 20 kilometers near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013, produced a very large meteorite shower, and quite a few of the small rocks hit buildings. None is known to have hit people, however, and the individual meteorites were so small that they did not do much damage—much less than the shockwave from the exploding fireball, which broke the glass in thousands of windows.
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