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Hundreds of people have suffered headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems after an object from space – believed to be a meteorite – crashed in southern Peru.
Witnesses told of a fiery ball falling from the sky and smashing into the desolate Andean plain near the Bolivian border at the weekend. Officials have said it was a meteorite.
When villagers went to investigate, they encountered fetid, noxious gases, according to local health officials.
Jorge Lopez, director of the health department in the state of Puno, said 200 people have suffered headaches, nausea and respiratory problems caused by “toxic” fumes from the resulting crater, which is about 66 feet wide and 16 feet deep.
“This is caused by the gas they have inhaled after the crash,” Mr Lopez said.
People are scared,” he said, adding people went to the site after hearing a crash that they thought might be an airplane.
“We ourselves went near the crater and now we’ve got irritated throats and itching noses,” Mr Lopez said.
Eight doctors had been sent to investigate and treat the sick.
But it’s not just people who aren’t feeling well after breathing in the gases. A bull has died and some other animals are also sick.
Municipal authority, Marco Limachi, reported that after the unidentified glowing object fell from the sky, the citizens of the town of Carancas began to have migraines, nausea and diarrhea.
Limachi stated, “the animals aren’t eating and some people are stuttering, it seems to be because they are frightened and worried about the impact.”
The Regional Health Director, Jorge Lopez, stated that not only would the people living closest to where the supposed meteorite landed be observed, but that people in the surrounding areas would also be tested for illnesses.
Ursula Marvin, a meteor expert at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, said it was likely the dust raised when the object hit the ground was causing the health problems.
She said a meteorite “wouldn’t get much gas out of the earth”.
Three geologists from Peru’s Geophysics Institute are on their way to the site to determine whether it was, in fact, a meteorite, and are expected to present a report on the incident on Thursday.
Similar cases were reported in 2002 and 2004 elsewhere in southern Peru but were never confirmed as meteorites.
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Filed under: Astronomy News
Hi Everyone,
There was a brilliant fireball seen over New England and parts of Canada on the evening of November 2 at around 7:15 pm. Based on the reports I've seen the fireball (what astronomers call a very bright meteor) was probably the result of a small asteroid, no larger than a volleyball and perhaps much smaller, burning up in the upper atmosphere. Since the fireball lasted for 5 seconds or longer it was probably moving relatively slowly (for a meteor!) at 7-20 miles per second. Though it may have appeared close by, most fireballs start to be visible at altitudes of 50 miles and cease to glow at ~10-15 miles up. It is very possible that small pieces of the asteroid survived to reach the ground as meteorites though there have been no reports of this yet.
Lots of reports are listed at the Fireball Page of the American Meteor Society at
Some news stories, including one out of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, are stating that the New England fireball and others seen around the world over the past few days are due to Comet Hartley 2 which is currently passing close to Earth. This is also the comet that the NASA EPOXI spacecraft just visited. There is no evidence that this fireball or any other meteor is related to the comet. Meteor watchers around the world have been on the lookout and no definite 'Hartley-ids' have been seen. Since this object was caused by a very small asteroid (bright, slow, multi-second meteor) rather than a comet (could be bright, very fast, lasts for a fraction of a second) there doesn't need to be a particular meteor shower that caused it.
Hope that helps,
– Carl