: A team of scientists from the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) and Geological Survey of India (GSI) rushed to Karumaloor village in Ernakulam district on Saturday evening to collect samples from a possible meteor impact site but failed to come up with material evidence. Experts, meanwhile, have concluded that the fireball seen in the sky across the State on Friday night was caused by a meteoroid.
The scientists visited the site after local people reported a fire on a vacant plot immediately after the fireball was noticed on Friday.
Alerted by the district administration, the police later cordoned off the area.
Head Scientist, SEOC, Sekhar Kuriakose said the site bore no impact marks or material evidence. “There was no impact crater or distributed craters typical of a meteor striking the earth. However, local people reported the dry grass on the plot catching fire immediately after the fireball was noticed. This could have been caused by small breakaway fragments from the meteoroid.”
The scientists said they had received samples reportedly collected by local people from another possible impact site at Valamboor.
There were unconfirmed reports of another fireball seen in the sky over Pathanapuram in Kollam district on Saturday night.
Scientists believe that it is a fragmented part of the meteoroid that came down on Friday.
Rocket debris ruled out
Meanwhile, Indian Space Research Organisation sources have ruled out the possibility of the fireball being caused by any manmade object falling to earth. Former Associate Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, V.Adimurthy, who is an expert in space debris, said no falling rocket debris had been recorded over the region on Friday night.
He said the fireball was most likely to have been triggered by a meteoroid.
“Everyday, meteoroids occur somewhere on earth. Many of them are not seen either because of daylight or because of their small size.” It is estimated that five to 10 tonnes of mass falls to earth everyday from space.
Dr. Adimurthy, who is also former chairman of the Inter Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), said the meteoroid seen on Friday could have been less than 50 cm in diameter and between 100 and 200 kg, going by the size of the fireball. “If it has fallen somewhere, the impact crater can reveal the size of the meteoroid. It will take an analysis to reveal the composition,”
Corroborating the meteoroid theory, Director, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) George Varghese said the bright fireball and sonic boom was possibly caused by friction with the atmosphere. NASA’s orbital debris programme office, which keeps a close tab on rocket debris, had not issued an alert for the region, he said.
“Asteroids, comets, meteors, and satellite debris falling to earth can cause tremors depending on the size.
No tremors
The fact that none of the seismic stations had recorded any activity shows that the meteoroid was of small size,” Dr. Varghese said.
