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Indian Scientists Study Chunk That Fell From Sky, Killed Man

August 14, 2017
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI (AP) — Scientists are analyzing a small blue object that plummeted from the sky and killed a man in southern India, after authorities said it was a meteorite.

The object slammed into the ground at an engineering college over the weekend, shattering a water cooler and sending splinters and shards flying. Police say a bus driver standing nearby was hit by the debris and died while being taken to a hospital.

College principal G. Bhaskar said he heard a loud thud from his office, where several window panes shattered when the object hit the ground.

Local officials and scientists from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics on Tuesday examined the 5-foot-wide (2-meter-wide) impact crater at the college near Vellore city, but said they had yet to determine whether the object was from outer space or possibly a passing airplane or man-made satellite.

The hard, jagged object is dark blue and small enough to be held in a closed hand.

"The object that police have recovered from the site would have to undergo chemical analysis" to confirm its origin, said the dean of the institute, Prof. G.C. Anupama. She said that while it was rare for meteors to reach the ground before burning up in the atmosphere, it happens.

In February 2013, a large meteor was photographed streaking across the sky above the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk.

Tamil Nadu's top elected official J. Jayalalithaa said Sunday that the bus driver had been killed by a meteorite and offered compensation to his family.

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