Details are sketchy, but it seems that 14-year-old Gerrit Blank was struck by a meteorite this week and survived to tell the tale.
posted by R. Mutt on Jun 12, 2009 - 61 comments

New evidence (Nature) has been discovered in support (BBC) of the North American Comet Catastrophe of 10,900 BC (previously). "We think that there was probably an impact which exploded in the air that sent [meteorite] particles flying into the animals.. the fragments unlikely originated on Earth." The discovery was made by Allen West using a magnet at an Arizona motel during a sale of Mammoth tusks. "It was just a tiny magnet on a string, but very strong. It would swing over [mammoth tusks] and stick firmly to these little dots."
posted by stbalbach on Dec 16, 2007 - 22 comments

Meteorfilter: Meteorite's Organic Matter Older Than The Sun.
posted by Rufus T. Firefly on Dec 15, 2006 - 29 comments

Fireballs are not altogether uncommon. They are often associated with known meteor showers (and other times not). They are sometimes "earth crosser" asteroids, cometary debris, or simply man-made space junk. Sometimes they are extremely well documented. The March 7, 2003 Park Forest fireball/meteorite (pdf) was recovered and recorded by police car cameras: (AVIs: 1, 2, 3) Perhaps the most incredible is the one that got away on August 10, 1972. Recorded by many still and movie cameras as it was seen in daylight over the Grand Tetons, it was also recorded by a previously secret satellite during it's 1-1/2 minute skip off the earth's atmosphere. See also: How to observe, and report fireballs.
posted by spock on Nov 10, 2006 - 29 comments

Record meteorite hits Norway. More pictures and information. (last two links in norwegian) No reports of injuries.
posted by pyramid termite on Jun 11, 2006 - 49 comments

The Moon's Mare Orientale is one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. It is nearly circular, 700 miles across and concentrically ringed like a bullseye. In short, it looks like a giant eye, one third of the diameter of the moon itself and yet, because it is on the moons far side, it's never visible from the Earths surface. [more]
posted by thatwhichfalls on Feb 17, 2003 - 9 comments

The stuff from which Myth is made. A recent discovery of a meteor impact crater in the middle-east, dating around 2300BC, is shedding new light on the decline of many cultures and the rise of many legends.
posted by mkn on Nov 15, 2001 - 19 comments

Liquid water discovered in a meteorite by scientists at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The rock was discovered in 1998 by kids who saw it fall near a small Texas town.
posted by Mars Saxman on Jun 8, 2000 - 1 comment