A 40-year-old Indian man may have become the first person known to be killed by a meteorite falling from space. The presumed meteorite left a four-feet deep crater after falling into the campus of a private college in the state of Tamil Nadu at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday.
The powerful explosion also injured three gardeners and shattered window panes, but the students who were attending classes at the time were safe. On Sunday, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa said that the death of the man named Kamaraj, who worked as driver working in the Bharathdasan Engineering College Campus in Vellore district, had been caused by a meteorite.
However, some scientists are skeptical of the claim.
@BadAstronomer do you have an opinion on the alleged TamilNadu meteorite fatality? My skeptical spideysense is tingling— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) February 8, 2016
@planet4589 @BadAstronomer small meteorites do not create blast wave upon impact. Damage reported very local, undeep crater. Does not ad up— Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) February 8, 2016
@Marco_Langbroek @planet4589 @BadAstronomer I was sent picture of a minute meteorite recovered from the alleged impact site: makes no sense.— Daniel Fischer (@cosmos4u) February 8, 2016
While officials initially investigated it as a possible terror attack, they were not able to find any explosives. According to some reports, a similar incident had occurred in a village nearby last week.
Local scientists still have to confirm that a meteorite was responsible for the death.
Piece of a meteorite found at a private engineering college in Vellore. One person was dead in the explosion. pic.twitter.com/TON5qzIw7N— J Sam Daniel Stalin (@jsamdaniel) February 7, 2016
Windows shattered due to Meteor impact at Naatraampalli, Vellore. Just like russian meteor impact . pic.twitter.com/5ioJdNBV1c— Prashanth (@itisprashanth) February 7, 2016
There have been no recorded deaths by meteorites so far. According to a study by astronomer Alan Harris, the odds of being killed by a meteorite are 1 in 700,000. However, this risk increases as the size of the meteorite gets bigger. For instance, in 2013, a meteorite hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk injuring over 1,000 people and damaging buildings.