'Meteorite' lands on cricket pitch during county match

[Seamus]

Found this through digg, original article here.

'Meteorite' lands on cricket pitch during county match

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 5:57PM BST 25 Jul 2010

When two spectators standing on the boundary at a cricket match saw an object hurtling down from the sky, their first instinct might have been to applaud.
However Jan Marszel, 51, and Richard Haynes, 52, were not witnessing a six, but an extremely rare meteor strike.
The rock, a few inches long and believed to be up to 4.5 billion years old, broke in two when it hit the ground in front of them close to the pitch.
The pair – both Sussex members – were sitting square of the wicket watching the England player Luke Wright bat with Monty Panesar when they spotted the black, five-inch rock hurtling towards them.
Mr Marszel, an IT consultant, said: “We were sitting at the boundary edge when all of a sudden, out of a blue sky, we saw this small dark object hurtling towards us.
“It landed five yards inside the boundary and split into two pieces.
“One piece bounced up and hit me in the chest and the other ended up against the boundary board.
“It came across at quite a speed – if it had hit me full on it could have been very interesting."
The pair have kept the seemingly extraterrestrial pieces of rock for posterity and said they would be happy for experts to examine them.
Retired Mr Haynes, said: “We were quietly supping our pints, both looked up at the same time and saw a black object coming towards us – we didn’t know what it was.
“If it had come from the other direction we might have suspected someone had thrown it, but we saw it come in straight over the ground from quite a way out – it was definitely a meteorite.”
Dr Matthew Genge, a meteorite expert at Imperial College, London, said: “If this turns out to be a meteorite it’s very exciting and would be the first fall in the UK since 1992.
"Potentially it contains secrets as to the formation of our solar system."

 

[Vulcan59]

Thanks Seamas,

This story was posted on SoTT. :)

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212605-UK-Sussex-Man-Hit-By-Meteorite

 

[Seamus]

Thanks Seamas,

This story was posted on SoTT. :)

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212605-UK-Sussex-Man-Hit-By-Meteorite

Thanks Vulcan59, I guess I missed it. :)

 

[okiron]

Meteorite in UK

It seems the month of July is bursting with so much activities of late....no? It kinda makes one wonder if something is speeding up......you know?




http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978397968

Jan Marszel and Richard Haynes first noticed the falling meteorite from their spot near the boundary. The rock was five inches long and is believed to be 4.5 billion years old, according to a Yahoo! report.

"We were sitting at the boundary edge when all of a sudden, out of a blue sky, we saw this small dark object hurtling towards us. It landed five yards inside the boundary and split into two pieces," Marszel was quoted as saying.

Marszel went on to note that a chunk of the meteorite bounced up and hit him in the chest, adding that if it hadn't broken into pieces and had made contact with him at full speed it "could have been very interesting."

Could have been very interesting? From where I'm sitting, a meteorite plummeting from the sky and touching down during the middle of a cricket match is already very interesting. In fact, one has to imagine that the match itself quickly became the background story.

It's a remarkable and lucky twist of fate, too, that the meteorite managed to land so close to so many people without injuring anyone or causing more damage. To fall at such a high rate of speed and leave so little carnage in its wake is a lucky break.

Needless to say, we know what the highlight of the cricket match was.