--- title: "Woman Reportedly Struck by Meteorite While Drinking Coffee" description: "A woman in France was reportedly struck by a tiny, rebounding piece of meteorite while chatting with a friend over a cup of coffee." date: "2023-07-17" modified: "2023-07-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/woman-meteorite-coffee" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "france" - "meteorites" - "meteors" - "the digest" --- # Woman Reportedly Struck by Meteorite While Drinking Coffee ![A woman in France was reportedly struck by a tiny, rebounding piece of meteorite while chatting with a friend over a cup of coffee.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Poom Clap A woman in France was reportedly struck by a tiny, rebounding piece of meteorite while chatting with a friend over a cup of coffee, [according to French newspaper *Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace* (DNA)](). "I heard a big 'Poom' coming from the roof next to us," the woman, who was not identified by name, told the newspaper, as [translated by *Newsweek*](). "In the second that followed, I felt a shock on the ribs. I thought it was an animal, a bat!" If confirmed, she would be the survivor of an exceedingly rare event. According to [some calculations](), the odds of getting struck by a meteor are roughly that of winning the lottery twice, or flipping a coin and having it come up heads 44 times in a row. That's despite roughly 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falling on Earth each day, [according to NASA](), most of which lands in the oceans or other unpopulated areas. ## Rare Ware After the mystery object rebounded off the woman, she took it geologist Thierry Rebmann, who found that it contained a mixture of iron and silicon, meaning it could indeed possibly be a meteorite. "It's very rare, in our temperate environments to find them," Rebmann told *DNA*. "They merge with other elements. On the other hand, in a desert environment, we can find them more easily." There have been only a very few reports of people getting hit by meteorites throughout history, though others have suffered [close]() [calls](). In 1954, an Alamba woman was [struck by a rebounding nine-pound meteorite]() that crashed through her ceiling, leaving a deep bruise. The incident is often cited as the only example in history of somebody being confirmed as having been directly hit by a space rock. In short, could this really be the next incident of a person getting struck by an errant rock that fell from space? For now, we'll wait for some more evidence to roll in. **More on meteorites:** *[Cops Say Meteorite Appears to Have Smashed New Jersey House]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()