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Fishy rock ?
Hi All,
I think truth was the only real casualty here.
Okay, lets assume it was a meteorite (and it might be -- can't discount that) something this small (size of a split-pea) even if it were travelling at high-speed (70km/sec) in interplanetary space, just a few seconds in the Earth's upper atmosphere would have slowed it via friction to terminal velocity (at maximum say 50m/sec = about 180km/hr) and 99.9% of the energy/monentum is already lost.
It would still have been 30-40km up at that time if not more. It would then spend probably 13+ minutes falling to Earth at terminal velocity during which time it would cool considerably (its cold up there) -- probably even become cold to the touch or icy.
It would hit the person at about terminal velocity -- and a split-pea sized rock at about 50m/s would do little damage unless it his someting partcularly soft like the eye etc.
There is no way it could leave a crater 30cm diameter on a bitumen road.
It is undoubted that people have in the past been hit and injured by or even killed by meteorites -- and they too would all have been travelling at about terminal velocity. But, the difference is the mass of the object. A 2kg piece of iron/rock travelling at 180km/hr would obviously do a lot of damage to a house/car/person. A pea-sized one? No, at most a small red mark on the skin like you've been shot with a BB gun.
A "large ball of light" -- as reported by the youngster? No, that would have occurred 40-50km up and 15 minutes before it hit him. "Enormous bang like a crash of thunder"? No, sorry, 50-odd m/sec won't do that with a pea-sized object either. I'd say he's re-constructing those things.
Best,
Les D
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