A French woman was hit by a meteorite while having coffee on a terrace

New Delhi: In an extremely rare astronomical event, a French woman was hit by a meteorite while having coffee on a terrace with a friend, media reported.

According to French newspaper Les Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace (DNA), the woman was hit in the ribs by a mysterious pebble.

“We heard a big 'boom’ from the roof next to us. In the next second, I felt a shock in my ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat! The woman was quoted as saying.

„We thought it was a piece of cement that we use for ridge tiles. But it has no color.”

To understand what had caught her, she had the rock examined by a local roofer, who suggested it was a meteorite. Following this, he had the rock examined by geologist Dr. Thierry Rebmann, who confirmed its extraterrestrial origin.

The rock appeared to contain a mixture of iron and silicon, and Rebmann was quoted as telling a local newspaper that it could be a meteorite. All the pieces of the recovered meteorite weighed more than 100 grams, the report said.

The geologist added that it is a rare occurrence for people to be hit by such objects. Meteorites are „space rocks” that survive their journey through Earth’s atmosphere and hit the ground.

These objects — called meteorites when they’re in space — range in size from dust grains to tiny asteroids. According to NASA, it is estimated that nearly 50 tons of meteorites fall on Earth every day.

„In our temperate environment, finding them is very rare,” Rebman was quoted as saying.

„They merge with other elements. On the other hand, in a desert environment, we can easily find them. The first confirmed case of a direct hit by a meteorite in the United States was in 1954, when a woman was hit by a 3.6 kg stone meteorite that crashed through her roof, causing severe bruising.