The news reported by Indian newspapers and picked up by many outlets around the world was startling: A bus driver was killed and three people were injured after a meteorite hit a college campus on Saturday. If true, it would have been the first scientifically confirmed report in history of someone being killed by a meteorite impact. By Tuesday, however, the story appeared to be fizzling as scientific experts weighed in.
The early reports included images of a crater, five feet deep and two feet wide. Witnesses described hearing an explosion, and the police recovered a black, pockmarked stone from the site, in southeast India. The chief minister of the state, Jayalalithaa Jayaram, promised compensation for the families of the driver, who was hit by debris, and for the other three people, The Times of India reported. READ MORE
