Meteorite it was, says college on driver's death in Vellore

It was indeed a meteorite that killed a driver in an engineering college in Vellore and shattered the window panes of buildings and buses, the Tiruchirapalli-based National College categorically said on Monday.

"We have issued a report saying it was indeed a meteorite that fell inside the Bharathidasan Engineering College," principal K. Anbarasu of the National College told IANS over phone from Trichy, around 350 km from here.

The National College released its report after studying the object recovered from the Bharathidasan Engineering College in Vellore district, around 170 km from here.

On February 6, a mysterious object from the skies hit the engineering college garden killing Kamaraj, the college bus driver and injuring three others.

The report effectively negates the report of US space agency NASA that said the object recovered from the site does not look like a meteorite.

According to the National College report, the object recovered contains carbonaceous chondrites.

The report said the object was studied under Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to understand its characteristics.

"Almost all the buildings in the campus (engineering college) were mildly affected by the tremor that was developed as a result of the impact of the object. The glass window panes of most of the buildings shattered to pieces," the report said.

"The video footage recorded by CCTVs installed in the campus have shown that a gush of wind entered into the building making all the window screens fly high at the time of the impact," the report said.

It called for a more detailed investigation by national and international agencies as this was the first incident where a life was lost to a meteorite hit.

"As per international norms for the nomenclature of meteorites, the present meteorite is named as 'BEC 1', which denotes the site of fall with a number," the report said.