----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 5:20
PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Re:Meteorite Strikes
Village in India
The Hindu
Online
edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 29, 2003
- Orissa
Search for
meteorite remnants continues
Bhubaneswar Sept. 28. The
search for the remnants of the huge meteorite — which sped across the sky in
the coastal Orissa last night — continued today amid reports of villagers in
Kendrapara district stumbling upon two strange objects this morning. While the
object at Benakanda village was blown to smithereens, the one at Paschima
suniti — weighing 5.7 kg — was intact. The ball of fire, described by
scientists as a meteorite, streaked across the sky from west to east before
landing on a thatched house at about 6.30 p.m. yesterday and was witnessed by
the people in at least 11 districts in the coastal belt. One dies One of the
11 persons admitted to hospitals in Kendrapara, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj
districts after witnessing the spectacle died in the SCB Medical College
Hospital at Cuttack today. Sukadeb Singh (75), who along with two others, had
been shifted from Kendrapara hospital to Cuttack, died this morning. Five
persons, including three from one family, were admitted to hospitals in three
different places of Jajpur district while three others were hospitalised at
Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj district. The three persons, who fell unconscious
after the incident, were recovering in the Kaptipada Hospital. A 75-year-old
man, Harekrushna Behera, complained that he had lost his vision after seeing
the fire. In Kolkata, M.P. Brila Planetarium clarified that the small streak
of luminous yellow light which turned to orange and finally brilliant blue
before disappearing from the sky was a typical meteorite, though it came a wee
bit closer to the earth than the normal ones. It was a normal cosmic
phenomenon and had nothing to do with the tidal ebb. — PTI