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The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot.
Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky.

This does not happen very often in Northallerton

Siobhan Cowton

Noticing it was "quite hot", she showed it to her father Niel.

The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University.

"I saw it fall from above roof height," Siobhan told BBC News Online.

"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava.

'Shiny'

"It was shiny on one side and looked rusty as if it contained iron.

"I've seen shooting stars before - but nothing like this. This does not happen very often in Northallerton."

Mr Cowton, 45, told BBC News Online he would take the stone to be analysed himself.

The stone may have come from Mars

"It is not going to leave my sight because it is a very rare find," he said.

"It is worth a lot to Siobhan.

From UPI.COM

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 13 (UPI) -- A massive meteorite weighing a staggering 2,607 pounds has been found near the northern Swedish village of Kitkiojarvi, officials say.

Thomas Osterberg, one of the two people who found it, said it was the biggest meteorite ever found in Sweden, the Swedish news agency TT reported.

He said it was egg-shaped, about one meter high with a diameter of about 70 centimeters at its broadest.

The finders say they hope to sell the whopper to the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

"It must stay in Sweden," Osterberg said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/13/Giant_meteorite_found_in_Sweden/U...

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