A meteorite is the remnant of an asteroid or comet which survives passage through the Earth's atmosphere to land on the surface. Meteorites are classified based on their composition as iron or stony. Stony meteorites are further classified as chondrites, achondrites, or carbonaceous chondrites based on their carbon content and texture. While stony meteorites are more common than irons, irons are discovered with disproportionate frequency due to their obviously anomalous composition compared to common Earth rocks. As meteorites fall to Earth, they can appear as a shooting star or a brilliant display called a fireball. As it falls, the meteorite is called a meteor. Both shooting stars and fireballs are caused by melting and ionization of the outer layers of the meteorite, leaving a blackened layer called a fusion crust.

There is not a single well-confirmed case in which a human has been killed by a meteorite, although it has been calculated that in the United States, on the average, a human will be struck by a meteorite once in every 9,300 years. In Joshua 10:11 in the Bible speaks of the struggle between the Israelites and the Amorites as follows: "And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-Horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from Heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword." A monk is alleged to have been killed by a meteorite in Cremona in 1511, and another monk in Milan in 1650. In 1674, two Swedish sailors supposedly were killed aboard their ship. However, of these reports, neither these nor more recent ones have with stood critical investigation. For example, some years ago a wedding guest is supposed to have been killed in the Balkans, a child in Japan, and the rebel general, T. Catillianis, in a military camp in 1906.

The best documented close-call was experienced by three children in Braunau in Bohemia in 1847, when a 17-kilogram iron meteorite fell into the room in which they were sleeping, covering them with debris. On November 30, 1954, a woman was slightly injured in Sylacauga, Alabama, by a stone meteorite weighing 3.855 kilograms. This meteorite struck her after penetrating the roof of her house.

There are only a few reports of animals killed by meteorites. For example, in 1911 a dog was killed by the SNC meteorite of Nakhla (in Egypt), and in 1860, a colt was skilled by a stone of the meteor shower of New Concord, Ohio.

In a bizarre coincidence, the house of Wanda and Robert Donahue in Wethersfield, Connecticut was struck by a meteorite on Nov. 8, 1982, just ten years after another meteorite struck another house less than 1 mile away!

Asteroid, Comet, Fireball, Lunar Meteorites, Meteor Shower, Shooting Star, SNC Meteorites, Tunguska Event