Posted on 02/08/2016 7:25:12 AM PST by Red Badger
Witnesses said the blast left a crater 5ft deep and 2ft wide.
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A meteorite crashed into an engineering college in Vellore district on Saturday , causing an explosion that killed one man and injured three others, the Tamil Nadu government said on Sunday.
Scientists, however, said it wasn't clear how the government concluded that a meteorite strike caused the blast. There has been no established death due to a meteorite hit in recorded history, they said.
If a meteorite indeed caused the death, bus driver Kamaraj will be the first person ever to have died in a meteorite strike. Saturday's blast also injured two gardeners and a student.
"You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time," is how astronomer and author of the book, Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors & Meteorites Michael Reynolds describes the likelihood of such an event in a National Geographic report.
Regardless of the scepticism of experts, chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday said the government would pay compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Kamaraj's family .The three people injured in the explosion will receive Rs 25,000 each, she said.
Witnesses said the blast left a crater 5ft deep and 2ft wide. Policemen recovered a black, pockmarked stone weighing 11g from the blast site.
A police officer said the department would consult experts from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru and ask them for a detailed analysis of the stone to ascertain whether it is debris from a meteorite. A team of experts from the institute will visit the site on February 8.
A bomb squad from Chennai took debris samples on Sunday for analysis at Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Mylapore. Police said preliminary investigation by police forensics experts ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast.
"We did not find any trace of explosive substances, so we ruled out the possibility that explosives caused the blast," an investigating officer said. "We will wait for a final autopsy report on the body of driver Kamaraj and the report from the forensic lab to confirm what triggered the explosion."
The blast, which took place during class hours on Saturday when students, teachers and other staff were within the college's main building, shattered several windowpanes and damaged the windscreens of buses parked nearby . Police said Kamaraj went to wash his face at a tap near a water tank in the parking lot of the college when the explosion occurred around noon on Saturday . Thick smoke engulfed the area, witnesses said. A student, Santhosh, and two gardeners, Sasi and Murali, were injured. The blast deafened Santhosh, although doctors could not immediately say if the condition would be permanent.
The first person in history that a meteorite is confirmed to have hit was American Ann Hodges, 'National Geographic' reported. A softball-size hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling of her house in Sylacauga, Alabama, in November 1954 and hit her in the thigh, leaving a pineapple-shaped bruise. Scientists closely watch space bodies that come to earth and predict in advance when a meteor large enough to stay intact after burning up in the atmosphere is going to hit the planet.
"Organizations like International Meteor Organization have already put out the calendar for 2016 -for the days we can expect meteor showers and if there are any chances of them hitting earth. These occurrences are catalogued for the benefit of stargazers," said Isro Mars Orbiter Mission project director V Adimurthy.
"They even predict the time of the meteor showers and are almost never wrong," he said. "The last meteor shower was on January 3 and the next one is between April 22 and 23. There is nothing for February."
Ping!.................
Meteorite = RPG
The Chelyabinsk meteor didn’t kill anybody, but it sure did injure a lot- mostly due to flying glass. Did a lot of property damage too.
CC
North Korea’s wrong way Rocket launch ?
Space junk falling to Earth.
Scientists, however, said it wasn't clear how the government concluded that a meteorite strike caused the blast. There has been no established death due to a meteorite hit in recorded history, they said.That's just a crock, it may have originated with Carl Sagan, although he never had any original thought of which I'm aware.
by John S. Lewis
hardcover
|
Oh, I thought he had BILLIONS and BILLIONS................
No traces of explosives were found...............
:”)
Life imitates fiction? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CU0fIW-QZw
I actually liked that show!...........................
There may be no recorded deaths by meteor, but, there have been at least two meteor hits that saved lives.
Both were in battles being let by Mithridates VI of Pontus. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article of him doesn’t mention the event.
You’ll have to read the book “The Poison King” by Adrienne Mayor.
Anyway, the claim of the meteor strikes may have been apocryphal, or, not, but, if true, they did stop the battles thus saving lives.
Thanks! Looks like a good read.
by Adrienne Mayor
Chapter 1 PDF
(Chapter 12: Falling Star, begins p 262)
It is!
Ancient history is full of good characters, he was one of them.
If it was a meteorite, too bad it wasn’t one of those guys from the Windows Support (Scam) Center.
Here is a very detailed report on bolide strikes from billions of years ago to this century. The only deaths suggested are a report from China of thousands killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
Here is an interesting event which was not even known until the 1990s when and astronomer found a report from a Franciscan monk in the Vatican Library. I had read about it a few years ago in a book about impacts. What I read said it may have affected an area about 50 miles in diameter, less than half of the Tungusku diameter. Nevertheless it appears to have been impressive and probably bigger than the recent Russian event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_Curu%C3%A7%C3%A1_River_event
Dead Like Me was an interesting show that had one of those unique feels, and still enjoys a cultish following. That`s partly thru it`s gallows humor appeal, I mean Toilet Seat Girl? Killed by a toilet seat from Mir, that`s ironic, a dark but funny way for her to start her new ‘career’.
And don’t forget the 535-536 weather event:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_weather_events_of_535%E2%80%93536
The article doesn’t address it directly (it is the wikipedia) but some have suggested that it was caused by a double comet strike in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia.
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