Almost hit by a meteorite!

[Poita (Peter)]

This is amazing:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/04/ho...y-a-meteorite/

[Octane (Humayun)]

H

[Varangian (John)]

Bloody hell!

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Eeep!

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Bugger! Missed... !

Says an invisible prankster...

[Ric]

Blimey that's amazing.

I read in another article that catching it on film is comparable to winning the lottery three times in a row.

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

One hypothesis. He had a rock placed in his parachute back pack and when he pulled the cord the chute suddenly expanded it threw the rock out.

That's one hypotheses.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Incredible !! Hope they find it.

[Astro_Bot]

One hypothesis. He had a rock placed in his parachute back pack and when he pulled the cord the chute suddenly expanded it threw the rock out.

Having done some skydiving, no-one would risk that with their own gear unless they were suicidal. If someone else did it (convention is everyone packs their own so that no-one else can be held responsible for stuff ups) then that would be (a) noticed (why are you messing with Olag's rig?!) and (b) attempted murder, except that would be too unreliable and obvious, would probably fail last minute buddy checks, since it's a big rock, and would likely be noticed before then when he went to put it on.

Best bet for a hoax is someone above carrying the rock voluntarily and dropping it, but the timing would have to be perfect and there'd still be risk of an accident.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

That's so cool!
(another reason not to parachute!)

[Suzy]

What if the rock would have hit Helstrup or his diving partner? Amundson said the rock would have cut him in half.

“Imagine a 5 kilo rock hitting you in the chest at 300 kilometers per hour,” Amundson says in the video. “That would have led to quite an accident investigation.”

More info here: http://www.universetoday.com/110963/...#ixzz2xsO4z2O4

[Baddad (Marty)]

Hi Adrian,

That appears to have some size to it. The weight would be noticeable if it were in the parachute pack. Weighing more than the parachute.

But, WOW!!!! I hope they find the alien.

Well done for sharing Poita er Peter.

Cheers

[Baddad (Marty)]

Peter, the title would be more correct if the alien rock was called a meteor.
Meteorite would have to have been hurled back up to the sky.

Ooh I dislike pedantic behavior too.

Cheers

[Poita (Peter)]

Well, the rock is currently a meteorite

[taminga16 (Greg)]

"According to geologist Hans Amundsen — of the Natural History Museum in Oslo — you’re looking at the first ever film of a meteorite falling through its dark flight stage".

When the consulting geologist can't get it right, what hope is there?
Greg.

[LewisM]

Meat Bomber pilot (that's what we call skydive pilots - I almost did it for a job till they told me it is mandatory for all pilots to make one jump) had a vendetta against the guy, chucked a rock at him

IF it's real, WOW. Something looks odd though

[andyc (Andy)]

It's a great video, I shared the Norwegian news version with friends, they were very impressed.

But, pedants... it's a meteorite. It is not going to have vapourised between that point and the ground, in cold free fall!! It hardly has precedent, and has a great deal more in common with the rocks found on the ground than the streaks in the sky.

[Suzy]

Well, it turns out there was no meteorite.
Seems it was a pebble accidentally packed in the parachute from the previous jump.

Reading the first comment in the article, I have to agree.
Why on Earth didn't they just reveal the news 2 yrs ago when it happened and save everyone a lot of stress- it was because the video went viral that people were able to answer the mystery. They didn't need to mention where the site was .

Thank you Carl for sending the link my way.
http://norskmeteornettverk.no/wordpress/?p=1497

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Told you so.

[Ric]

Thanks for the link Suzy.

It's a pity it wasn't the real deal, that would have been awesome.