Last Saturday, what is believed to be a meteorite fell on a college campus in Tamil Nadu, India, and caused a large explosion when it hit the ground. The crash caused a large crater to form and it also killed a bus driver that was standing on the sidewalk. There were no eyewitnesses to the event, but people who were nearby have reported having heard a large blast. However, scientists are skeptical that it was actually a meteorite.
The stone that fell through the atmosphere and caused the explosion was collected and studied by the research team. It is reported to be about 10 grams and small enough to fit in a person’s hand. NASA’s meteorite and asteroid expert in the Space Science Division Derek Sears has said, “The image of the stone is too poor to tell anything, but I would have thought if the object killed someone we would have a large stone?” He has also said, according to BBC, that fragments of the rock would have flew in the impact and killed people, and no fragments have been found.
Due to the suspicion that the item was actually a meteorite, scientists now think that it could have possibly been an object falling from an aircraft. However, what causes even more suspicion is that apparently, on January 26, an object was seen falling from the sky on an agricultural field in the same region of India, and it left a three-foot-deep pit. This now begs the question: What is falling from the sky?
Lola Itzhaki
The stone that fell through the atmosphere and caused the explosion was collected and studied by the research team. It is reported to be about 10 grams and small enough to fit in a person’s hand. NASA’s meteorite and asteroid expert in the Space Science Division Derek Sears has said, “The image of the stone is too poor to tell anything, but I would have thought if the object killed someone we would have a large stone?” He has also said, according to BBC, that fragments of the rock would have flew in the impact and killed people, and no fragments have been found.
Due to the suspicion that the item was actually a meteorite, scientists now think that it could have possibly been an object falling from an aircraft. However, what causes even more suspicion is that apparently, on January 26, an object was seen falling from the sky on an agricultural field in the same region of India, and it left a three-foot-deep pit. This now begs the question: What is falling from the sky?
Lola Itzhaki