Jumping out of plane several miles above the Earth is already dangerous enough without space rocks bombarding you, but that’s what happened to Anders Helstrup back in 2012. The experienced Norwegian skydiver was filming a jump with some friends when something strange happened — he was almost hit by a meteorite in midair. This wasn’t just a rare occurrence — it’s the first time a meteorite has been filmed in freefall after it has cooled.
All previous footage we have of meteors falling through the atmosphere is of larger rocks that are still very hot and glowing. However, smaller chunks of space debris can sometimes lose all their cosmic velocity and cool as they plunge deeper into Earth’s atmosphere. This is most likely the case with Anders’ meteorite. The object is only in the shot for about half a dozen frames several meters away. It’s speed has been estimated at more than 300 km per hour, but at roughly 5 kg it would have had more than enough energy to obliterate any unlucky skydivers caught in its path.
Anders took the video to scientists at the Natural History Museum in Oslo. After examining it, experts were convinced Anders had encountered a breccia – a common type of meteorite rock that originates in the Great Asteroid Belt. One side of the object appears to be scorched and black in the video, and the other is lighter. This indicates Anders’ meteorite may be a remnant of a larger object that broke up high in the atmosphere.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum have used the video to narrow down the area where the object might have landed, but have thus far been unable to locate it. Despite moving fast enough to nearly kill the very lucky Anders Helstrup, it wouldn’t have had the energy to produce a crater upon impact. So it may still be intact somewhere out there in the Norwegian forests. We’ll probably just have to make do with this one-of-a-kind video.