Martin writes:
> I remember reading about a meteorite that fell through the trunk of a car
> in Japan a number of years ago. The meteorite was spinning and as it
> punched through the metal of the trunk lid, it was scored or somehow
> marked with a screw-thread pattern that was later used to hypothesize
> about the spin rate of the falling stone. Anyone else remember this and
> know more about it?
This one?
Another Car Conker (Sky & Telescope, September 1995, p. 12):
Kciichi Sasatani didn't hear the loud bang that announced the arrival
of a small stony meteorite outside his home on the night of February
18th. But the retired school director from Neagari, Japan, had no
trouble finding the cosmic intruder the next day: it was lying squarely
in the deeply punctured trunk cover of his car. Eyewitnesses saw a
bright bolide near midnight (14:55 Universal Time) prior to the stone's
abrupt landing. The fireball appeared high above the Sea of Japan
and traced a steep, south-southeast trajectory toward the coast.
About the size of a chicken's egg, the Neagari meteorite broke into at
least four pieces upon impact. The largest of these weighs 325 grams.
According to Akira lshiwatari (Kanazawa University), the stone is an L6
chondrite, one of the most common types to fall on Earth. But it is very
special to Sasatani, who now owns one of only three meteorites known
to have struck a vehicle. The most famous predecessor fell in Peekskill,
New York, in October 1992 (S&T, February 1993, page 26). Less well
known is the unfortunate meeting of a 1.8-kilogram stone and a Pontiac
coupé in Benld, Illinois, on September 29, 1938 (The Sky, June 1939,
page 11). A fourth collision, reported last year near Madrid, Spain, may
not have involved a meteorite after all.
Cheers,
Bernd
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