Thursday, January 19, 2017

Unlucky Chevy Malibu...!

Imagine sitting in your living room, watching television, and suddenly hearing a loud crash. It would cause a bit of concern, don't you think?

1992
Meteorite crashes into Chevy Malibu

On this day in 1992, 18-year-old Michelle Knapp is watching television in her parents’ living room in Peekskill, New York when she hears a thunderous crash in the driveway. Alarmed, Knapp ran outside to investigate. What she found was startling, to say the least: a sizeable hole in the rear end of her car, an orange 1980 Chevy Malibu; a matching hole in the gravel driveway underneath the car; and in the hole, the culprit: what looked like an ordinary, bowling-ball–sized rock. It was extremely heavy for its size (it weighed about 28 pounds), shaped like a football and warm to the touch; also, it smelled vaguely of rotten eggs. The next day, a curator from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City confirmed that the object was a genuine meteorite.

Scientists estimate that the Earth is bombarded with about 100 pounds of meteoric material every day. Meteorites are pieces of asteroids and other debris made of rock, iron and nickel that have been orbiting in space for billions of years. Some are as tiny as dust particles and others are as huge as 10 miles across; most, however, are about the size of a baseball. Astronomers and other people who pay attention to the night sky can easily see them: When a meteorite enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it blazes across the sky like a fireball. (What most people call “shooting stars” are actually meteorites.) Thousands of people in the eastern United States saw the greenish Peekskill meteorite as it streaked toward Knapp’s Malibu and many heard it too: one witness said that it crackled like a very loud sparkler. Scientists have determined that it came from the inner edge of the main asteroid belt in space, between Jupiter and Mars.

While meteorites are fairly common, a meteorite hitting a car is not: A car is, after all, a very small object on a very large planet. In fact, as far as scientists know it has only happened twice before–once in Illinois during the 1930s and once in St. Louis. Eventually, the famous Knapp meteorite was sold to a collector and two fossil dealers, who broke it into smaller chunks and sold those to a handful of other collectors and museums. The car, meanwhile, sold for $10,000 to Lang’s Fossils and Meteorites in Cranford, New Jersey. It has been on display in New York, Paris, Munich and Tokyo.

I would imagine that the owner of that 1980 Chevy Malibu was more than happy to accept the $10,000. It certainly was a good deal, especially considering what the body work would have cost to fix the car, ya know ?

Coffee out on the still wet patio this morning.

9 comments:

linda m said...

That is a good deal. I doubt that even "body work" would have helped. Probably would have to total the car. $10,000 seems like a good deal to me. Just having that meteorite hit the car is astounding.

Momlady said...

Yikes! Good thing it didn't hit the gas tank.

JO said...

Momlady, that is just what I was thinking too. I would have been delighted to get that much money for a car of that age.

Looks like we are in for more rain here too and cooler temps again.

Hermit's Baby Sis said...

Hey Bubba - you drive a Malibu, don't you? Wonder if they're targeted by the meteorite club in outer space, kinda like pinball, ya know?
If you hear a loud sparkler, stay out of the driveway!

Big hugs ~

Hermit's Baby Sis said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
HermitJim said...

Hey Linda...
Looks to me like she came out the winner for sure.
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Momlady...
Yeah. that's for sure!
Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Jo...
That would have been a mess for sure!
Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by today!


Hey Sis...
That's why I hide mine under the carport in case.
Thanks, Sis, for the visit this morning!

Sixbears said...

Sometimes problems fall right out of the sky.

Dizzy-Dick said...

I wrote a blog posting awhile back about a lady that was hit by a meteorite. Here is a link to the internet story:
http://gizmodo.com/5986388/the-only-woman-who-ever-got-hit-by-a-meteorite-survived

HermitJim said...

Hey Sixbears...
Luckily most of them miss our heads!
Thanks for coming over today!


Hey Dizzy...
I remember that article. Either lucky or very unlucky, depending on how you see it.
Thanks for the visit today, my friend!