Skydiver almost hit by meteorite
No idea if this is an April Fools thing or not, but skydiver Anders Helstrup claims that a rock whooshed past him during a wingsuit flight in 2012. And he caught the incident on video:
The relevent bit starts at about 25 seconds in. Here’s a news story and a longer version of the video report with English subtitles:
Although Helstrup is still not completely convinced that it was indeed a meteorite that flew past him, the experts are in no doubt.
“It can’t be anything else. The shape is typical of meteorites — a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded,” said geologist Hans Amundsen.
He explained that the meteorite had been part of a larger stone that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometres above Helstrup.
Amundsen thinks he can make out coloured patches in the stone, and believes that in that case it may be a breccia — a common type of meteorite rock.
According to the article, the search is on to find the meterorite on the ground. I poked around a bit for information on a fireball sighting over Norway on the date in question (June 17, 2012) but didn’t find anything. Smells like a hoax to me, but if it’s real, it’s the first time a post-fireball meteor has been observed and filmed while still falling.
Update: Even Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy allows this may be real.
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