Meteorite hits French woman sipping coffee with friend on terrace: Experts call it extremely rare event

According to media reports, a woman from France was hit by a meteorite while she was having coffee on a terrace with her friend. Experts reveal that this incident is an extremely rare astronomical event.

Hyderabad: According to a popular French newspaper, a woman from France was hit by a meteorite while sipping coffee on a terrace with her friend. According to reports, a mysterious pebble struck the woman in the ribs. The woman said that she heard a big "Boom" coming from the roof next to the one they were sitting on. After the loud noise, the woman felt a shock on her ribs, which she mistook for an animal, such as a bat.

The woman further said that they even mistook the extraterrestrial rock to be a piece of cement, as the one people apply to the ridge tiles, but it lacked a similar colour. Confused with the look and appearance of the thing that struck her, the woman decided to get the rock inspected by a local roofer, who suggested that the rock might be a meteorite. Dr Thierry Rebmann, a geologist, helped the women confirm that the rock has extra-terrestrial origins.

Dr Rebmann said to a local newspaper that the rock appears to contain a mixture of iron and silicon and that it could be a meteorite. According to reports, all the other pieces of the meteorite that have been recovered weigh more than 100 grams. Dr Rebmann revealed that the event of people being struck by one of such objects is an extremely rare event. Rocks from space which survive their journey through the Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground are called Meteorites.

When in space, the size of a meteorite can range from that of a dust grain to smaller asteroids. According to a report from NASA, almost 50 tonnes of meteoritic material is estimated to fall every day on Earth. Dr Rebmann reveals that it is very rare for meteorites to land in the temperate environment of France, as they easily merge with other elements. Whereas it is easy to find them in desert-like environments. The first ever case of a person getting hit by a meteorite was reported in 1954 in the US, where a woman was struck by a 3.6 kg stony meteorite crashing through her roof and leaving her severely bruised.