Indian man may be first to be killed by meteorite

Indian officials say a meteorite struck the campus of a private engineering college on Saturday, killing one person. If scientists confirm the explosion was due to a meteorite, it would be the first recorded human fatality due to a falling space rock.

According to local reports, a bus driver was killed on Saturday when a meteorite landed in the area where he was walking, damaging the window panes of nearby buses and buildings. Three other people were injured.

Keep your eyes open for more news and for verification of this story.

Here is the Daily Mail's report. I thought that gelatine was used in cooking!

RUSSIAN METEORITE

Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-tonne chunk of the space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk earlier this year.

The object plunged into Lake Chebarkul in central Russia on 15 February, leaving a 6m-wide hole in the ice.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10383898/Russian-divers-recover-half-tonne-meteor-from-lake.html

KT BOUNDARY

The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say.

Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.The space rock gave rise to a global layer of sediments enriched in the chemical element iridium, in concentrations much higher than naturally occurs; it must have come from outer space.

The team suggests that frequently quoted iridium values are incorrect. Using a comparison with another extraterrestrial element deposited in the impact - osmium - they were able to deduce that the collision deposited less debris than has previously been supposed.

The recalculated iridium value suggests a smaller body hit the Earth. So for the second part of their work, the researchers took the new figure and attempted to reconcile it with the known physical properties of the Chicxulub impact.

For more information follow the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21709229

FIREBALLS FROM SPACE

There are two programmes on Sunday 3rd March about meteors & meteorites:

8pm-9pm on Channel 4: 'Meteor Strike: Fireball from space'

9pm-10pm on BBC2: 'Horizon, the Truth about Meteors' with Prof Iain Stewart

Here are a pair of swiftly assembled documentaries pondering what, if anything, it all means. BBC2’s offering is presented by Professor Iain Stewart. He’ll be exploring the role of meteorites in earth’s history and assessing the possibility of them making a return visit at some point. 

C4’s documentary will be attempting something fairly similar while utilising a slightly more dramatic title (‘Meteor Strike: Fireball from Space’, no less!) – although it does promise previously unseen footage, which, let’s be honest, is what it’s all about. 

RELEVANT FOR:

• Y12 GEOLOGY: EVIDENCE FOR EARTH'S INTERIOR AND THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
• Y13 GEOLOGY: MASS EXTINCTIONS
• THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE IAIN STEWART PROGRAMMES

ASTEROID NEAR MISS (FRIDAY 15TH FEB)

'Record close' asteroid may miss the Earth but it could take out your phone.

Scientists have dismissed fears an asteroid due to whizz past the Earth on Friday will 'destroy London' - but it could take out vital telecommunications satellites.

Scientists say they are sure there is no chance of the 150ft (45.7m) wide space rock hitting the planet.

But there is a remote possibility that it could collide with one of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites in fixed orbits above the Earth.

The asteroid, 2012 DA14, has been closely tracked since its discovery a year ago.

It is predicted to reach its nearest point to the Earth at around 7.30pm UK time on Friday.

Experts have calculated it will stay at least 17,200 miles (27,681km) away - easily far enough to be safe, but a very close shave in astronomical terms. Scientists have never observed such a narrow miss before.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9860421/Record-close-asteroid-may-miss-the-Earth-but-it-could-take-out-your-phone.html

METEORITE HITS BOY

A schoolboy has survived a direct hit by a meteorite after it fell to earth at 30,000mph. 

Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw "ball of light" heading straight towards him from the sky. A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground.

The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million - but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand. He said: "At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand.

"Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder." "The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.

"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," he explained.

Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite which crashed to Earth in Essen, Germany.

"Most don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere. Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water," he added.

The only other known example of a human being surviving a meteor strike happened in Alabama, USA, in November 1954 when a grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off furniture and landed on a sleeping woman.