Recently, a meteorite landed on a college campus in India. According to reports, the meteorite might have also caused the death and multiple injuries to the people who were in the area of its landing.
The college campus is located in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Last February 6, an object which was believed to be a meteorite plummeted on the school grounds. The object was found in a 4 feet crater and was described as a "bluish black" rock. NASA has yet to confirm whether this newly found rock is a meteorite. NASA has since spoken about the incident and according to the agency's spokeswoman, they are already investigating the rock.
"Our Planetary Defence Coordination Office is aware of the reports and is looking into it. So at this point the report is unconfirmed" announced NASA spokeswoman Laurie Cantillo.
If the investigation confirms that it was indeed a meteorite that killed the person from the campus, it would be the first incident of death caused by a celestial body recorded. The deceased, who is reportedly named Kamaraj, was a bus driver who was just standing by the campus' garden when the alleged meteorite hit around 12:30 p.m. local time, Saturday. The impact didn't only cause Kamaraj's death but also injured 2 gardeners. The explosion also broke classroom and car windows leading the school administration to cancel classes up until February 10.
Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer recently sent an email to Live Science explaining how rare this occurrence is. According to Johnson, reports about injuries cause by meteorites do not come by often that the last reported incident was from three years ago.
"It is so rare, there has never been a scientifically confirmed report of someone being killed by a meteorite impact in recorded history. There have been reports of injuries, but even those were extremely rare before the Chelyabinsk event three years ago"
