(PCM) The news recently broke that a bus driver was killed and three other people were injured in India after being struck by a meteorite that rained down upon a college campus. It would have been the very first confirmed death due to the impact of a meteorite, however it now appears that this may not be true.
Witness’s on the scene recall hearing a large explosion and authorities recovered a black, pockmarked stone from the site of what appears to be a large crater five feet deep and two feet wide. The image has been circulating online and many initially felt that it resembled the type of indentation that a meteorite would make if it crashed upon the earth, however there was no meteorite shower predicted nor observed on that particular day. Experts say it would have been an incredibly rare phenomenon.
NASA has weighed in on the controversy and they say according to the New York Times, “the photos posted online were more consistent with a “land-based explosion” rather than something from space. NASA goes on to say that death by a meteorite explosion is so rare that one has never been scientifically confirmed in recorded history. There have been some meteorite related injuries over the years but no deaths.
Meteorites are cool to the touch when they land and NASA feels that the image taken in India more than likely appeared to be nothing more than a common earth rock.
