[meteorite-list] Getafe

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:33 2004
Message-ID: <3D08C11D.E085B956_at_lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de>

Herbert Raab wrote:

> The reports in Sky & Telescope said it turned out to be slag.
> I am currently in the office and unable to check the old
> volumes of S&T, but I searched with Google and found this
> site: <http://tierra.rediris.es/merge/getafe.html>

Hello Walter, Herbert, and List,

Here is the article that appeared in Sky & Telescope.

Best regards,

Bernd


Meteorites 2, Cars 0 (Sky & Telescope, Dec. 1994, News Notes, p. 12):

Either Earth is overpopulated with cars, or cosmic interlopers carry a
dangerous grudge. For the second time in 18 months, a meteorite has
chosen a car as its target. Unlike the relatively harmless Peekskill
(New York) stone that crash-landed on an unoccupied Chevrolet in 1992
(S&T February 1993, page 26), this rocky rapscallion conked a car in
Spain - and injured its driver.
On the afternoon of June 21st, José Martin and his wife, Vicenta Cors,
were driving from Madrid to Marbella, where they hoped to spend a few
days playing golf. As Martin zoomed south past the town of Getafe, a
1.4-kilogram meteorite crashed through the windshield on the driver's
side. It ricocheted off the dashboard, bent the steering wheel, grazed
the little finger of Martin's right hand, then flew between the couple's
heads and landed on the back seat.
Martin managed to pull over safely. Despite his shock and broken finger,
he kept a sense of humor about the ordeal, later telling acquaintances
curious about his finger cast that he was recovering from a tough round
of bullfighting.
The rock was taken to the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid
and identified as a meteorite by mineralogist Jesus Martinez-Frias. He
believes that the stone struck the car obliquely, given its low angle of
entrance into the windshield. Martinez-Frias later found more than 50
kilograms of additional fragments scattered within 200 meters of the
impact site. The results of his analysis will be published in a few
months.

Text for photo #1: On June 21st this 12-centimeter-wide, car-conking
intruder canceled a golfing trip, sent a car to the shop for repairs,
and gave José Martin quite a story to tell.

Text for photo #2: Here's another reason to take the bus. The hole in
this windshield is where the meteorite pictured above slammed into José
Martin's car, precariously close to the driver's side. Photographs by
Carlos M. Escorza; courtesy Cosmos magazine.
Received on Thu 13 Jun 2002 11:58:21 AM PDT