VELLORE: Amid discussions across the world over the nature of the mysterious object that apparently fell from the sky and killed one person and injured three, geological experts, who visited the spot in Vellore, retrieved one more piece of the object on Thursday from the terrace of the college building.
The experts said that the object had all the characteristics of a meteorite. “But, chemical analysis should be conducted to confirm this,” they added.
The observation came at a time when the US space agency, NASA, had speculated that it was unlikely to be a meteorite, and attributed the cause of the explosion to a land-based material.
S Raju, Deputy Director General of Geological Survey of India, Chennai, and senior geologist S B Vijaya Kumar conducted field study at Bharathidasan Engineering College at Natrampalli in Vellore, where the incident happened.
The college Principal G Baskar handed over a 61-gram object to the experts. The object was found on the terrace of the three-storied administrative block of the college a couple of days ago.
“I was asked to collect the materials from the college premises that looked different. The construction workers found the object on the building terrace,” said Baskar.
Downplaying NASA’s statement that the object fell on the engineering college premises was not a meteorite, he said, “Without visiting the spot and analysing the samples, one cannot say what it is.”
It had “magnetic and carbon properties” that are characteristics of a meteorite. The object looks like an iron meteorite. The other two kinds were stone and stony-iron meteorites, he said.
He added: “We will take the samples to Chennai after getting permission from the district administration and police. The samples will be sent to our head office in Kolkata for a detailed scientific study.”
Electron Microprobe Phase Analysis (EMPA) that would study each and every particle of the object and a chemical analysis would be done to confirm whether the object was a meteorite or not.
It will take four to five days, he said. If the analysis comes positive, then it will be the first incident of meteorite fall resulting in the death of a man.
He, however, said that they are yet to receive the object which fell on January 26 and February 6 at the farm field in Bethavepampattu in Vaniyambadi and Bharathidasan Engineering College campuses, respectively, and the authorities have also failed to inform them about the incident.
“The GSI is the only nodal agency in the country to collect and analyse meteorite. So far, we have collected 700 meteorites from across the country and preserved it in our head office. We have collected 105 kg stony meteorites and pieces of meteorite, ranging from 26 kg to 3 kg, that fell in Shoolagiri (when it was part of Dharmapuri district) in 2008,” he said.
The experts have asked the district administration to excavate the spot at the farmland in Bethavepampattu, where the object fell.
“Taking the diameter (3 m) of the crater, there is a possibility of meteorite buried at the spot,” said Raju.