It's raining meteorites in Gujarat
Gujarat: While it's raining heavily in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, there has been a different kind of shower in Gujarat.
The skies over Saurashtra lit up on Monday night with a meteorite shower.
Eyewitnesses saw streaks of red and yellow light falling from the sky.
Several people witnessed shooting stars in the sky at around 9:30 pm. The meteorites were visible in Jamnagar, Kutch and Rajkot districts of the state.
What is a meteor shower? |
Most meteors seen in meteor showers are caused by particles smaller than a grain of sand. As a result it is very rare to have any meteorites hit the ground during a typical meteor shower. |
Flurries of meteors or meteor showers are produced by small fragments of cosmic debris entering the earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds. Each time a comet swings by the sun, it produces large amounts of small particles which eventually spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid 'stream'. If the Earth's orbit and the comet's orbit intersect at some point, then the Earth will pass through this stream for a few days at roughly the same time each year, producing a meteor shower.Some meteorite pieces were even found near Samakhiali in Kutch.
Eyewitnesses say they saw streaks of red and yellow light falling from the sky. Others said they felt a big thud when the meteorite fell to the ground.
The sight of these planetary objects hurtling down the earth emitting light created considerable excitement among the people of this region.
The collector of Kutch, Dhananjay Diwedi, told CNN-IBN in a telephone conversation that they have been able to collect some stones from the meteoric shower from the Bharuch district in Gujrat.
The Physical Research Laborataory (PRL), a premier institution of the Department of Space, Government of India, will be conducting elaborate tests on the meteorites.
The metorites will be brought to PRL on Tuesday evening, where tests will first be conducted to determine the orgin of the meteorite, its radioactivity, its age, chemical composition and other features.
Scientists are yet to confirm whether the pieces are part of a meteor or space junk.
Scientists have to identify whether the pieces are actually part of a meteor or just space junk.
Every year, tens of thousands of objects strike the earth's atmosphere. Some of them are strong enough to withstand the atmosphere layers and fall to the earth.
(With inputs from Narendra Nag and PTI)