Astronomy:2016 February Tamil Nadu meteorite incident
On February 8, 2016, a number of media outlets reported that a bus driver had been killed and three others injured by a possible meteorite fall in Tamil Nadu, India. A falling object reportedly left a crater 4 feet (1.2 m) deep and smashed windows on the campus of Bharathidasan Engineering College, in addition to inflicting the injuries.[1][2] Others in the area reported hearing an unusual sound and seeing a smoke stripe, and police reported finding rock fragments embedded in the driver's body.[3]
A small (11 grams (0.39 oz)[4]) blue object was recovered from the scene that attracted a magnet, and some experts suggested it could be a fragment of a space vehicle.[3] Authorities suspected an explosion of abandoned gelatine sticks, but no traces of explosives were found. Dipankar Banerjee of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics expressed skepticism that the object was a meteorite,[5] as did Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer.[6] Other experts concluded that a meteorite so small could not have created a crater as large as the one reported.[4]
Officials of the National College, Tiruchirapalli, insisted that the object was a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite and designated it as BEC 1.[2]
If the object was a meteorite, the incident would be the first confirmed death of a human due to a meteorite in recorded history.[1][4]
Magnetized quark-nugget?
The Tamil Nadu incident may be an example of an impact by a magnetized quark-nugget (MQN) (a type of strangelet), a candidate form of dark matter. Impacts similar to the Tamil Nadu incident, with no recognizable meteor left behind and with other characteristics consistent with an MQN impact, are reported roughly once a year worldwide.[7]
See also
- List of unsolved deaths
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Auger, Monika (8 February 2016). "Authorities: Meteorite Killed Man in India". Wall Street Journal. https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/10/asia/india-meteorite-man-killed/index.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "It was meteorite that killed a person in Vellore: Study". ZeeNews. 9 February 2016. https://zeenews.india.com/news/tamil-nadu/it-was-meteorite-that-killed-a-person-in-vellore-study_1855995.html.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Scientists study India's deadly 'meteorite' (Update)". https://phys.org/news/2016-02-scientists-india-deadly-meteorite.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Astrophysicists analyse 'meteorite' that killed bus driver, shattered windows in India". ABC News. 9 February 2016. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-10/scientists-study-deadly-meteorite-india/7154232.
- ↑ Chandrashekar, Nandini (7 February 2016). "Vellore Rock Unlikely to Be A Meteorite, Says Astro Prof". The New Indian Express. https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2016/feb/07/Vellore-Rock-Unlikely-to-Be-A-Meteorite-Says-Astro-Prof-889568.html.
- ↑ Hauser, Christine (9 February 2016). "That Wasn’t a Meteorite That Killed a Man in India, NASA Says". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/world/asia/that-wasnt-a-meteorite-that-killed-a-man-in-india-nasa-says.html.
- ↑ VanDevender, J. Pace; Shoemaker, Ian M.; Sloan, T.; VanDevender, Aaron P.; Ulmen, Benjamin A. (December 2020). "Mass distribution of magnetized quark-nugget dark matter and comparison with requirements and observations". Scientific Reports 10 (1): 17903. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-74984-z.
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