Meteor destroys cottage
2006-10-20 20:17
Berlin - A fire that destroyed a cottage
near Bonn and injured a 77-year-old man was probably caused by a
meteor and witnesses saw an arc of blazing light in the sky,
German police said on Friday.
Burkhard Rick, a spokesperson for the police in Siegburg east
of Bonn, said the fire gutted the cottage and badly burned the
man's hands and face in the incident on October 10.
"We sought assistance from Bochum observatory and they noted
that at that particular moment the earth was near a field of
meteoroid splinter and it could be assumed that particles had
entered the atmosphere," he said.
"The particles usually don't reach the surface because they
disintegrate in the atmosphere," he added. "But some can make it
to the ground. We believe this was a bolide (meteoric fireball)
with a size of no more than 10mm."
- Reuters