This Skydiver Was Almost Hit by a Meteorite in Mid-Air
No one’s ever filmed a meteorite in dark flight
It's not unusual to long for a close encounter with space, to want to fly atop a rocket or float among the stars. Anders Helstrup nearly got one—a deep, piercing connection with the solar system. This encounter, though, would have been a far less romantic and much more grisly experience. While skydiving one day, Helstrup was nearly hit by a meteorite. And he caught it all on camera.
In the video above Norwegian public broadcaster NRK explores Anders Helstrup's close encounter with space, and the search that has since followed to find Helstrup's meteorite.
No one has ever caught a falling meteorite on camera during its period of “dark flight,” says Morten Bilet in the video—the period when the meteorite is no longer aglow from friction with the atmosphere. Let alone one that nearly punched a hole through a skydiver.