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UK Meteorite Fall

Hi All,

Thought you may be interested to hear about a UK Fall reported in the press
this weekend... DON'T tell them I just copied this out, okay?!

"BARMAGEDDON"

"Chunk of meteor puts hole in lawn at boozer"

Drinkers narrowly missed their own Armageddon when part of a meteorite hurtled
into a pub's beer garden.

Landlady Margaret Malbon and her regulars thought the huge crash outside was a
lightning bolt.

But they found a lump of rock the size of a pound coin embedded in a smoking,
foot-deep crater on the lawn.

Margaret, 49, phoned American experts at NASA who said it was a meteorite
fragment that landed at over 600moh.

Despite its tiny size it could have caused thousands of pounds of damage -
leaving the pub looking like something out of the hit movie Armageddon.

Mum-of-two Margaret, boss of the Bellringer in Berry Hill, near Stoke on
Trent, Staffs, said "I was pulling pints when there was an almighty crash. 

"The particle must have been red hot because we were surrounded by smoke when
we went outside. People had been drinking there minutes before."

NASA have asked for a more detailed description of the rock.

Meteorite expert Jenny Randles said "Anyone hit by it would have been killed
outright".

- THE SUN, Sat Aug 22nd, p13. (accompanying B&W illustrations show the pub (v
nice) and Margaret laying on the lawn, behind a roughly rectangular patch of
blackened grass (no sign of a "crater"!) and holding in her right hand the
meteorite, which is roughly walnut-sized, v dark, shaped a little like a
strawberry I'd say...)


Okay, as Ally McBeal's Biscuit would say, "Several things trouble me..." about
this...

1. The "crater" - a foot deep? Is that possible? It's not on the photo.
2. The "smoke" - hmmm??? Burnt grass I suppose... maybe... still not sure
though...
3. It didn't land in the garden of MY pub...!! :-(

But on the brighter side, the reference to the "huge crash" may be a sign that
there are other bits out there waiting to be found after a mid-air
detonation.. yes?

If anyone wants to follow up on this, all the details you need are in the
article above. I'd go down myself, but that's about as likely as finding
20,000 for pieces of lunar meteorite (Oh Michael,  you are ***so*** funny!!!!)

Regards,

Stuart

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