The fastest object ever to fly through the atmosphere was actually a specially sculpted piece of Red Leicester cheese made by Mrs Glenda Nosebiscuit of Surrey. By using the time-honoured method of putting a large spoon on a table with the handle hanging over the edge, loading the cheese into the bowl and giving it a good hard thwack with the arm, she achieved a speed of nearly 20 kilometres per second, easily fast enough to eject the cheese from the Earth's, and Sun's, gravitational pull. The cheese is now well on its way to overtaking Voyager 2 as the most distant man-made object from the Earth.