Meteorites are 'space rocks' that survive their journey through Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground.
In an extremely rare astronomical event, a French woman was hit by a meteorite while having coffee on the terrace with her friend,Newsweek reported. The incident happened on July 6 when the woman, whose identity has not been revealed, was seated on an outdoor terrace engaged in conversation with her friend. Suddenly, a mysterious pebble struck her in the ribs.
"I heard a big 'Poom' coming from the roof next to us. In the second that followed, I felt a shock in the ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat! We thought it was a piece of cement, the one we apply to the ridge tiles. But it didn't have the colour, '' the woman told French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace.
To understand what happened, she got the rock checked by a local roofer. The roofer told her that it was not made from cement but that it looked like a meteorite. She also showed the mysterious object to geologist Thierry Rebmann who confirmed its extra-terrestrial origins.
The geologist stated that a mixture of iron and silicon was inside the meteorite, which is not rare in itself. However, the phenomenon of people being struck by such objects is extremely rare.
“Finding a meteor is already uncommon, but to be in direct contact and have it fall on you, that is astronomically rare,” Dr Rebmann stated.
He further said that it's even rare to discover meteors in temperate climate zones like France.
“It's very rare, in our temperate environments to find them. They merge with other elements. On the other hand, in a desert environment, we can find them more easily,” Dr Rebmann said.
Meteorites are 'space rocks' that survive their journey through the Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground. Almost 50 tonnes of meteoritic material is estimated to fall to Earth every day, according to NASA.
In May this year, a potential meteorite burst through the roof of a US family residing in New Jersey, as per a report in CBS News. According to the Hopewell Township Police Department, a four-by-six-inch item struck a ranch-style house on Old Washington Crossing Pennington Road, causing damage to the hardwood floor. The family members were not inside the house at the time of the collision.