Comment by herodoturtle
2 days ago
> In the US, if a meteorite lands on your property, it's yours and you can sell or donate it as you please.
Does this happen often in the US?
I mean often enough that folks happen to know the legality of it?
In which case I find it extremely frightening that one could be sitting on their porch, minding their own business, browsing HN, and then get unexpectedly head-shotted by a meteorite.
According to this article, we know of three people who have been hit by meteorites, all non-fatally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite)
Not sure if we should count Tunguska, which killed at least three people.
It happens at the same probability as anywhere else on earth.
Is this actually true? Could it depend on latitude?
Apparently they are thought to be more common closer to the equator, due to the plane of the solar system (and hence the asteroid belt) lining up with it: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/meteorites-might-be-more...
Apologies for the ambiguity, I was referring to the selling or donating of meteorites - and only because I've never heard of such a thing in my part of the world.