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At least 20 people are thought to have been injured by a meteorite fall in Eastern India reports the Tribune of India. The meteorite fall was witnessed by people throughout the coastal Orissa area as a bright fireball associated with sonic booms and is reported to have caused widespread panic. Several people are reported to have been injured when they fell unconscious after witnessing the fireball.
Other reports suggest that fragments of the meteorite fell in Sudsudia village and damaged buildings. Eye witnesses have described that one fireball ignited a thatched roof and that several people were injured in the fall. Indian government officials are attempting to recover pieces of the meteorite.
Many thousands of meteorites fall on Earth every year, however, most of these objects are only a few tens of grams in size and only occasionally cause damage to property. Larger meteorites, a few metres in size, fall every few tens of years, and although they are extremely unlikely to land in built-up areas they are capable of causing substantial damage to buildings. The Sikhote Alin meteorite fall in 1947, for example, had a total weight of 23 tonnes and punched holes up to 12 m deep into the ground. The collision occurred, however, in an unpopulated area and no one was hurt.
"The reports from India are broadly consistent with the fall of a large meteorite", says Dr Matthew Genge, a meteorite expert at Imperial College London, "However, the appearance of bright fireballs can cause considerable panic and eye witness accounts are often contradictory."
"Reports of fireballs colliding with the ground and causing damage are particularly common", says Genge, "however, except in the largest falls, fireballs are extinguished at altitudes of many kilometres, and meteorites are cool once they reach the Earth's surface. Descriptions of the collision of fireballs with the ground are usually caused by the observer seeing the fireball pass over the horizon."
Dr Genge stresses that large meteorite falls are rare and that, if confirmed, the fall in India will be the first to have caused injuries to a number of people.
More info: Sikhote Alin Fall
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