Mbale, Uganda (1992)
In 1992, one other particular person survived a direct hit by a meteorite. The identical 12 months that Michelle Knapp’s automobile was struck (apparently 1992 was a giant 12 months for meteorites), a small chunk of area rock hit a young boy in Mbale, Uganda, within the head. Fortunately, the piece was tiny (about 3 grams or 0.1 ounces) and first handed by means of banana leaves, which slowed it down sufficient to keep away from damage. The boy was nice and bought a incredible story to inform for the remainder of his life.
Lorton, Virginia (2010)
Think about sitting at your desk in the midst of the work day, wishing desperately that you simply have been anyplace else, and a rock from area crashes by means of the roof. That’s precisely what occurred at Dr. Frank Ciampi’s workplace in Lorton, Virginia, on Jan. 18, 2010. A 300-gram (10.6-ounce) meteorite came flying through the ceiling of his medical practice and embedded itself within the ground beside his receptionist’s desk.
Nobody was damage, however the meteorite shattered a part of the constructing. Let’s simply hope Dr. Ciampi let his receptionist go residence early that day.
Chelyabinsk, Russia (2013)
Up till this level, all of the eyewitness accounts of area rocks coming to Earth have been fairly lighthearted. No person has died, and injury has been fairly restricted. However that every one modified on Feb. 15, 2013, when an asteroid entered Earth’s ambiance and exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia.
This was not a tiny meteorite. This area rock was estimated to be 20 meters (65 ft) vast, and it packed a critical punch. The town of Chelyabinsk — and an enormous space surrounding it — bought extraordinarily fortunate that the asteroid exploded within the air, 30 kilometers (19 miles) above the bottom. The blast itself was equal to 400–600 kilotons of TNT — greater than 30 occasions the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. If it had hit the bottom intact, it might have been probably the most devastating catastrophe in recorded historical past.
