Meteorite buffs are given to complaining that these bolts from the cosmic blue almost always land unsighted (provided, that is, they escape annihilation by friction in the Earth's atmosphere). But for once, a meteorite landing was caught by camcorders when they maundered off a football match their owners were filming and focused on a vivid green-and-white fireball streaking across the morning sky (Nature, Vol 367, No 6464).

Scientists were thus able to study the fall of the meteorite frame by frame. The fireball blazed a 700 km-long trail before shattering into about 70 fragments. Although four fragments finally made it to the ground, the only one found so far is a 12 kg piece that crashlanded on a Chevrolet.