[meteorite-list] Statistically Speaking

[Bernd V. Pauli]

Hello All,

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Sky & Telescope, December 1985, p. 553:

Killer Meteorite

On page 222 of the March issue you state, "No one in recorded history
has been killed by a falling meteorite." However, Camille Flammarion in
his Astronomie Populaire reports a few casualties, and among these we
can confirm one case in our own city.

In 1973 V. de Michele of the Natural History Museum of Milan found a
fairly complete 1664 description of an event that took place between 1633
and 1664. There is some controversy about the exact date, as it was not
reported in the original description written by P.M. Terzago, a physician
living in Milan at the time.

Not far from the center of the city a Franciscan friar was struck on the thigh
by a stone from the sky and died abruptly. The meteorite was found in contact
with his thighbone and had probably severed the femoral artery.

Terzago's description led de Michele to think that the celestial bullet, which
appears to have been a lens-shaped chondrite, was about 4 by 5 centimeters
in size. The small but diabolical meteorite was lost in the middle of the 18th
century, but a description and a colored drawing are in the Ambrosian library
of Milan.

Marco Cavagna and Massimo Vicentini
Civico Planetario Hoepli
Corso Venezia, 57
20121 Milan, Italy

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Best wishes,

Bernd

P.S.: Interesting to re-read my posts from 10 years ago ;-)