Around 0930 local on Monday, 12 march 2007 a large recently molten metal object, about the size of a deck of cards, smashed through the windows and blinds of a Bloomington Illinois home and embedded itself in a computer desk. When the lady of the house, Dee Riddle, heard the breaking glass, she thought her bedroom mirror must have shattered. Without checking it, scientists from Illinois State University said that it must be a meteorite. The last known meteorite to strike Bloomington was back in the 1930's.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey's meteorite center in Flagstaff, Arizona are working to analyze the object which, from imagery, appears to be similar to an end-squashed tin-can folded in on itself, but seems very solid in density (which it would have to be if it wasn't to burn up completely on re-entry).
In Air Safety Week on 12 March ("
To Set Alight a Satellite") we reported on the increased number of sightings of fiery re-entry by pilots world-wide. This follows on from two recent space debris creating events in Low Earth Orbit. The first was the 11 Jan 07 destruction by China of an old weather satellite - using a Medium Range Ballistic Missile from the Xichang Center in Sichuan Province. The second was the 19 Feb 07 fiery rupture of fuel-tanks on the Russian Briz-M rocket that had been placed into a defective orbit last year.
The rain in Spain might fall mainly on the plains, however the rain from space can fall precipitatively anywhere.