In most cases, falling meteorites will not cause any harm. But sometimes it will fall into the house, smash through the roof and ceiling, and hurt people and animals. Such natural disasters are indeed unexpected, but sometimes they seem strange.
1880, a small meteorite landed on the back of an American donkey.
19 1 1 year, a dog in Egypt was hit by a meteorite and died.
There is an interesting and rare event: 1928, a 0.2-gram celestial stone hit a little girl, and the meteorite grazed her face and burned her clothes.
In archaeological excavations, there are also amazing discoveries. 1892 When excavating in Argentina, a skeleton was found 6 meters underground. This is the remains of an extinct large LEPIDOPTERA lazy beast killed by meteorites millions of years ago. That meteorite is next to the skeleton.
At the beginning of August, 1972, Dr. Rogoff of NASA released a terrible disaster forecast to the United States. He said, "1on the afternoon of August, 1972 10, there will be a big meteorite with destructive power comparable to the atomic bomb that fell in Hiroshima, Japan, to attack the western United States!" In those days, residents in the western United States were in a state of panic.
At the scheduled time, I saw a dazzling fireball cut through the blue sky, passing Utah, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, Canada in the western United States. 1 hour later, the trace left by this meteorite is still clear. Thousands of Americans and Canadians witnessed this rare sight with their own eyes, and many astronomy enthusiasts successfully took photos.
This meteorite didn't fall on people's heads, it can only be said to be a fluke. At that time, meteorites entered the atmosphere at a speed of 15 km per second and a height of 58 km along the tangent direction. Just because it is fast enough, it breaks away from the gravity of the earth and returns to the universe. According to the observation records, Dr. Rogoff concluded that the meteorite weighed thousands of tons, equivalent to the specific gravity of iron, with a diameter of 4 meters and a flight speed of 50 times the speed of sound. Considering its weight and speed, its energy is equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, and its destructive power is comparable to that of the atomic bombs dropped by the United States in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"There are few opportunities for giant meteorites to visit the Earth, but meteorites around 1000 tons may attack the Earth every 10 or 20 years." Dr Rogoff warned.
If the people in the 1972 incident were lucky, some people before or after that were not so lucky.
1954165438+1On the afternoon of October 30th, Mrs. hodges was taking a nap on the sofa in Alabama, USA. Suddenly, with a whistle, an object broke through the roof, punched a hole in the sofa and scratched Mrs. hodges's abdomen. It was a meteorite that hurt Mrs. hodges.
1938 On the morning of September 29th, a meteorite weighing 2kg landed on the roof of a garage in Illinois, USA, and then fell off the roof, but no one was injured.
19921On the evening of October 9, a bright fireball passed through most parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland and New Jersey. After a chondrite penetrated the body of a Chevrolet car in Pixar, new york, it lay firmly in a small pit formed by it. When the owner found this 12kg stone, it was still hot and smelled of sulfur. Because this incident is very rare, this ordinary meteorite sold for $69,000, and the price of the damaged car was much higher than that of the new car.
Looking back, there are also some examples of near misses.
1847 July 14 The meteorite attack was very famous and took place in a small village called Blanau in Bohemia, Czech Republic. A meteorite weighing 20 kilograms flew into the room of three sleeping children from the roof and smashed the bed. Incredibly, the three children are safe and sound.
/kloc-one day in 0/890, in Kansas, a farmer was daydreaming under a carriage. After a sudden loud noise, the dust flew and the vegetation around the farmer was swept away. It turned out that a meteorite weighing 5 kg was shot down in an open space 18 meters away from where he was lying.
If a meteorite falls right on someone's head, it's over. However, the probability of this happening is extremely low, only once every few hundred years. According to ancient records, China, Italian, French, Indian and other countries have been hit by meteorites.
In China, in AD 6 16, dozens of people were killed by meteorites. 15 1 1 year, Milan, Italy, someone was hit by a meteorite. 1790, a French farmer died in a meteorite attack; In India 1825 and 1878, one person was killed by a meteorite.
With the development of navigation and aviation, meteorites hit ships and planes in flight.
1907 and 1920, meteorites were observed in the Atlantic Ocean near sailboats. Later, the event that the ship sank because of the meteorite impact finally happened. 1908 In February, an American cargo ship named Eccleps was on its way back to San Francisco from Newcastle, Australia. Suddenly, a meteorite hit the ship and made a loud noise. The mast of the ship broke in two at once. The meteorite hit a big hole on the deck, then penetrated the bottom of the ship and fell into the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, this meteorite caused no casualties, but in the next four days, the crew had to pump water desperately because of the influx of seawater from the cave, but the hull was still sinking. The captain had to give an order to abandon the ship and all the crew were transferred to the lifeboat. They were 900 kilometers away from Hawaii at that time. If they hadn't been rescued by passing ships, they would have been buried in Wang Yang.
1930, the Greek cargo ship Sarkiris, which was sailing in the Mediterranean, suffered even greater misfortune. A meteorite hit the middle of the ship, split it in two and sank in an instant.
1957 65438+1On the night of October 29th, the former Soviet ship Izmir was sailing back to Odessa from Kolkata. Suddenly a meteor appeared in the dark sky, and the fire flashed. A small meteorite weighing only17g hit the mast and landed on the deck.
Some experts speculate that some ships that suddenly disappeared at sea may have been hit by meteorites and sank. 1887, a Japanese warship registered in France disappeared shortly after leaving Singapore on the way back, which shocked the whole of Japan. Later, some scholars thought that most of the culprits for the disappearance of this warship were meteorites.
The Bermuda Triangle in the west of the North Atlantic is a place that makes people feel terrible. It is famous for the mysterious disappearance of at least 35 ships and planes here for many years, and at least 1000 people have gone here and never returned. Books, movies and TV plays describing these mysterious disappearances emerge one after another. However, those who want to solve the mystery of Bermuda Triangle are still empty-handed and have found nothing.
Some experts believe that some ships killed in this area were caused by meteorites.
In space navigation, if you encounter the impact of meteoroids, it will seriously endanger the safety of instruments and astronauts.
In addition to natural meteorites, we sometimes encounter artificial celestial stones. Near the northwest of Slovakia, the tractor driver Neck was working in the field when a sharp whistle drowned out the rumble of the tractor and a piece of metal fell into the tractor's track. Although the surface of this metal has melted in the atmosphere, traces of processing can still be seen. Chemical analysis shows that this is an alloy. According to the identification of scholars, this stone from heaven is a fragment of a satellite.
Although these "uninvited guests" have caused all kinds of shocks and injuries to mankind, every visitor from the universe-meteorite-has its important scientific value. You know, meteorites are samples of materials that make up other celestial bodies. By analyzing the composition and structure of meteorites, we can know the composition of other celestial bodies. Our analysis of meteorites shows that no unknown elements have been found so far. This shows that the material contained in the meteorite itself is the material that constitutes the earth and other planets in the solar system.
With the help of these stones, we can further understand the formation and development of planets in the solar system. Many scientists believe that meteorites are fragments left by scattered planets, and the mineral composition of meteorites is the same as that on earth, which can confirm this. However, some people believe that some of these meteorites are the result of volcanic eruptions of planets such as Jupiter in the solar system. Others think it is formed by a cloud of gas and dust, which once enveloped the sun at some time long ago.