Near Misses
Every day, tons of dust from comets and tiny pieces of asteroids burn up in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Most days, a piece or two of rock or metal, the size of an apple or bigger, actually makes contact with the earth. Yet it’s unlikely you’ll ever see a meteorite hit the ground, let alone be struck by one. Only one meteorite is known to have ever hit a person. The rock, about the size of a grapefruit, bounced off Ann Hodges’s radio and hit her as she lay on her sofa near Sylacauga, Alabama, U.S.A., in November 1954. Somehow, she escaped with only a bruised hip and wrist.