• IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here.

    The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.

天打雷劈 Ah Neh Killed by Meteorite

俺操汝地娘

Alfrescian
Loyal
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/...ed-man-at-indian-college-says-chief-minister/


Meteorite Killed Man at Indian College, Says Chief Minister

Article
Comments (1)

J. Jayalalithaa
Meteorite
Space
Tamil Nadu

By Aditi Malhotra
CONNECT

A meteor from the Geminids meteor shower enters the Earth’s atmosphere past the stars Castor and Pollux on December 12, 2009 above Southold, New York.
Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A man was killed and three others were injured Saturday in what authorities said was a meteorite strike at a college campus in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

An unidentified object left a four-feet deep crater after falling near a cafeteria inside the Bharathidasan Engineering College campus at about 12.30 p.m. on Saturday, G. Baskar, principal of the college in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, said.

“There was a noise like a big explosion,” said Mr. Baskar. “It was an abnormal sound that could be heard till at least 3 kilometers [about 2 miles] away,” he added.
Advertisement

It would be the first time in modern history that a person has been killed by a meteorite.

The powerful explosion smashed the windows of classrooms and the windshields of vehicles parked in the vicinity. Students at the college were immediately sent home and classes were suspended until Wednesday.
More In Space

Mumbai’s Garbage Fire Can Be Seen From Space
India's Great Wall Can Be Seen From Space
The ‘Supermoon’ as Seen From India
Spectacular Images and Video of India From the International Space Station
'Phew', India's Mars Orbiter Safe After Comet Flyby

Mr. Baskar described the tiny rock fragments observed at the site of the explosion on Saturday as “blue-ish black” in color.

V. Kamaraj, who operated a bus for the college, suffered severe injuries while he was walking close to the area where the object struck. He died Saturday. Three others, including two gardeners working inside the campus and a student at the college, were also injured during the incident.

J. Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, said in a statement Sunday that Mr. Kamaraj died after a meteorite fell inside the college campus. She didn’t elaborate on what led authorities to believe the crater was caused by a meteorite. A spokesman for Ms. Jayalalithaa’s office couldn’t immediately be reached to comment.

A meteoroid is a small particle from an asteroid or comet that goes around the sun. When a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere it burns up, often seen as the light phenomenon known as a shooting star. A meteorite is a meteoroid that survives entry into the atmosphere and falls to Earth.

Sujan Sengupta, an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said there was “extremely little possibility of a small meteorite falling to the ground” and killing someone.

“If a bigger asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it will disintegrate and travel in different directions and because most of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, it is most likely to fall into the ocean,” Mr. Sengupta said.

According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, there is no record “in modern times of any person being killed by a meteorite.”

“An individual’s chance of being killed by a meteorite is small, but the risk increases with the size of the impacting comet or asteroid,” NASA says on its website. A meteoroid larger than half a mile in diameter could have worldwide effects. If something smaller than that hits the Earth, it is likely to cause local damage.

The space agency’s “Near Earth Object Program” detects, tracks and characterizes potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that might approach Earth. As of Feb. 5, NASA says it has discovered 879 asteroids with a diameter of approximately a kilometer or larger. Experts say smaller asteroids and meteorites are harder, if not impossible, to track.

In 2013, a meteor explosion over Russia’s Ural Mountains left around 1,000 people injured, mostly by flying glass. Around 3,000 buildings were damaged. Russia’s Academy of Sciences said at the time that the meteor was several yards in diameter and weighed around 10 metric tons.

Ms. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister, announced compensation of 100,000 rupees ($1,473) for the family of the driver and 25,000 rupees to each of those injured.

Correction: A previous version of this post, in one instance, incorrectly said the incident took place on Sunday. It occurred on Saturday.

For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook




http://www.khaleejtimes.com/interna...an-become-the-first-to-be-killed-by-meteorite




India probes whether driver is first person killed by meteorite
AFP/IANS/Chennai
Filed on February 9, 2016 | Last updated on February 9, 2016 at 12.15 pm

Share
Vote

"If proven it would be the first meteorite death of a human in recorded history"

Indian authorities say a falling object that killed a bus driver and injured three others was a meteorite. If proven, it would be the first such death in recorded history.

Experts said other explanations were possible for the incident Saturday in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The impact of the object left a large crater in the ground and shattered window panes in a nearby building, killing the driver who was walking past.

Images in local media showed a blueish rock, which Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram described as a "meteorite" - although scientists say this has not yet been proved.

"A meteorite fell at a private engineering college... and claimed the life of a college bus driver," said the chief minister in a statement late Sunday expressing "shock" at the news.

S. P. Rajaguru, assistant professor at the Indian Astrophysics Institute in Bangalore, said the rock could be a meteorite but further tests were needed.

If proven it would be the first meteorite death of a human in recorded history, he said.

"Most of the meteors never reach the earth surface as they completely vaporise in the atmosphere," he told AFP by phone.

On February 6, 2016, for the first time in recorded history, it was reported that a meteorite killed a person-a bus driver in India.
- UberFacts (@UberFacts) February 9, 2016

"Hitting the Earth surface is very rare and there have been no deaths in recorded history." Rajaguru said the missile could be debris from a rocket or a space shuttle.

Meteors are particles of dust and rock that usually burn up as they pass through the Earth's atmosphere. Those that do not burn up completely, surviving the fall to Earth, are known as meteorites.

Tracking meteorite is very difficult

Even as scientists are studying whether the object that fell from the sky into an engineering college compound in Vellore killing a person is a meteorite, a former senior official of an Indian space agency said tracking meteorites is very difficult because of their small size.

A meteorite is a portion of an asteroid or a comet that survives the Earth's atmospheric heat and impacts the earth's surface.

The portion or debris of an asteroid or comet before it hits the Earth's surface is called a meteoroid.

"Once a meteoroid escapes the Earth's atmosphere then it falls towards the Earth at a speed of 2-4 km per second. Normally meteoroids turn into ashes when they enter the Earth's atmosphere due to friction," M.Y.S. Prasad, former director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told IANS.

But if the meteoroid is large and travels down slowly, then some portion of that can survive the atmospheric heat.

"No country in the world now has the capability to track meteoroid the escapes the atmosphere," he added.

According to the US's National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) website: "Asteroids are typically composed of rock-forming minerals, most commonly olivine and pyroxene. However, they often contain metal (iron and nickel), sulfides (chemical mixtures of metals and sulfur), clays, and organic compounds. The structure and composition of asteroids vary from object to object."

Prasad said most asteroids in our solar system are in the region between Mars and Jupiter known as asteroid belt.

Kamaraj, employed as a driver with Bharathidasan Engineering College in Natrampalli in Vellore district, around 170 km from here, was killed and three others were injured in an explosion after a burning object fell from the sky on February 6.

Police said Kamaraj and others were hit by splinters due to the impact of the unknown object which also created a three-foot wide crater on the ground.

According to police, the fragments of material embedded in Kamaraj's body have been sent for forensic analysis and the post-mortem examination report would be finalised only after the analysis report is received.

On Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa announced Rs.1 lakh for Kamaraj's family and compensation of Rs.25,000 each to the three injured, saying the death and injury happened due to meteorite hit.

Meanwhile, scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, have been deputed to study the issue.

According to Prasad, large meteorites on hitting the earth can shatter glasses due to pressure waves.

Asteroids and meteors can be observed from the Earth only by telescopes and also by launching space telescopes.

It is said the chances of a meteorite hitting the Earth surface during the day or night are equal, Prasad said.

However, many meteorite hits on the Earth are recorded after spring and before summer and the reason for this is not known, he added.

The size of meteorites that hits the Earth will be in the range of millimetre to 10 metres.

Prasad said a study done by a team of International Academy for Astronautics has identified around 1,100 objects - asteroids and comets - over one kilometre diameter in size and has catalogued around 700 of them.

He said the US government has tasked NASA to track and catalogue near-Earth objects measuring 140 metres and more by 2020.

Prasad said most of the meteorites have iron and nickel and may stick to magnet.

Interestingly a police official in Vellore told IANS that the space object recovered from the engineering college campus sticks to magnet.
 

harimau

Alfrescian
Loyal
Is he gay?

images
 
Top