Suspected Meteorite The Size Of A Football Crashes Into Rice Field In India

A suspected meteorite the size of a football landed in the middle of a rice field in eastern India. Authorities said the meteorite crashed in the Madhubani district in Bihar state on Monday, causing an unusual noise and startling farmers in the village.

Citing the Madhubani District Magistrate Shirsat Kapil Ashok, the Times of India reported that a group of farmers was in the fields when they heard the loud thud. After looking around to find the source of the sound, they found the object lying in a five-feet-deep hole on the ground, which was created by the impact of the fall.

The object was found in Mahadeva village under Laukahi police station area on Monday evening. The villagers who extracted the object then informed government officials about the extraordinary find.

The object is now in the custody of the district treasury. It will be temporarily placed at the Bihar Museum until its transfer to the Shrikrishna science center in the city of Patna, where it will be studied.

The object is believed to be a meteorite but authorities are still waiting for expert opinion to confirm if it indeed originated from space.

The suspected space rock reportedly weighs nearly 13 kilograms and found to have magnetic properties. Ashok said the object looked like a rock but it glitters more than an unpolished stone.

According to NASA, meteorites may look like Earth rocks but they often have burned exterior that appear shiny. This “fusion crust” is formed when the object’s outer surface melts during its passage through the atmosphere.

“We have written to the state’s principal secretary, science and technology department, informing him about this peculiar object that looks like a piece of rock but its glitter is much more than that of an unpolished stone. Its magnetic pull makes it even more intriguing,” Ashok said.

Space objects typically burn up as they fall to Earth. A meteorite is a debris from an object from outer space such as a comet, asteroid or meteoroid that survived its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and landed on the ground. These objects can provide clues about the history of the solar system.

“By studying meteorites we can learn about early conditions and processes in the solar system’s history,” NASA said.

“These include the age and composition of different planetary building blocks, the temperatures achieved at the surfaces and interiors of asteroids, and the degree to which materials were shocked by impacts in the past.”