A day after it blazed across the sky creating a shock wave, the district administration attributed the fireball to a meteorite that entered the earth’s atmosphere.
On Saturday, reports emerged that a fire broke out at a four-cent property in Karumaloor village near Aluva after a fireball plunged from the sky. A similar incident was also reported from Velamboor in Mazhuvannur village near Perumbavoor. “Samples have been collected from two sites–one each in Mazhuvannur and Karumaloor villages from where reports of objects falling out of the sky emerged. Preliminary assessments point to the possibility of a meteorite activity,” district collector M.G. Rajamanickam told The Hindu .
According to the official, the samples collected by the revenue authority will be handed over to the Geological Survey of India to verify if the objects belong to a meteor. He also refuted the reports of a mild tremor accompanying the fireball, saying that no such vibrations were reported in seismographs.
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Officials with the District Disaster Management Authority in Ernakulam said that they were yet to get any unfamiliar objects while inspecting the sites.
Further scientific examination was required to ascertain if samples collected contained any extra terrestrial matter.
Meanwhile, scientific experts also pointed to the likelihood of a space debris re-entry given the slow pace of the object.
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“A similar group of slow moving fireballs were reported in the US during the two days from February 23. Further, the reports suggest the object was moving across the sky very slowly, which again raises the possibility of a space debris re-entry,” pointed out Prof. K. Indulekha, School of Pure and Applied Physics, Mahatma Gandhi University and a contributor to the SKA India consortium at the TIFR-National Centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in Pune.