According to a Newsweek report, a French woman was hit by a meteorite just as when she was having a cup of coffee with her friend on the terrace. The incident took place on July 6. As per the report, the woman was sitting on the outdoor terrace, and suddenly a mysterious pebble struck her in the ribs.
The woman was quoted by the French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace as saying, "I heard a big 'Poom' coming from the roof next to us. In the second that followed, I felt a shock in the ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat! We thought it was a piece of cement, the one we apply to the ridge tiles. But it didn't have the colour."
The woman then got the rock checked by a local roofer who told her that it looked like a meteorite.
The woman then also showed the alleged meteorite to geologist Thierry Rebmann who confirmed its extra-terrestrial origins. Rebmann said that inside the meteorite was a mixture of iron and silicon which is not rare, however, the phenomenon of people being struck by such objects is extremely rare.
Rebmann was quoted as saying, "Finding a meteor is already uncommon, but to be in direct contact and have it fall on you, that is astronomically rare."
He added, "It's very rare, in our temperate environments to find them. They merge with other elements. On the other hand, in a desert environment, we can find them more easily."
ASA describes meteorites as 'space rocks' that survive their journey through the Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground. Every day, close to 50 tonnes of meteoritic material is estimated to fall on Earth.
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