Bad Astronomy

Meteorite injuries in India?

Update: D’oh! I did a dumb thing– I didn’t check the date on the article. This happened over two years ago! I thought this story was familiar, but didn’t have time to check up on it, and wanted to get it up on the blog so others could see it. Well, lesson learned on my part. Sorry about this, folks.

Did a meteorite hit in eastern India, injuring people?

According to this BBC article, a fireball fell from the sky on March 25, setting fire to houses and injuring three people (there is also another, earlier, article saying 20 people were hurt).

It sounds legit, but I’m not actually convinced. Most of the time, these reports turn out to be exaggerated or even false. And in general, meteorites don’t cause fires unless the incoming meteoroid is really big. Accurate information on this is very hard to come by.

If anyone finds more info, please leave a comment here! I am always interested in following up on events like this.