Fireball over Kerala: Impact crater located

A suspected depression or an impact crater, believed to be caused by a 'fireball spotted on Friday night in several districts of Kerala, has been located in Karimalloor village in Ernakulam district on Saturday.

A team of the State Disaster Management Authority is on their way to the spot, official scientist from the authority, Sekhar Kuriakose said.

"We have located a suspected impact crater at Karimalloor village in Ernakulam district and our team is rushing to the spot," he said.

It is yet to be ascertained as to what exactly caused the phenomena, but there is a possibility that the crater might be caused by a meteor, he said.

A huge 'fireball' was noticed streaking across the sky last night in parts of Thrissur, Ernakulam, Palakaad, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala.

An area in the village, where the crater was noticed, was found charred, he said, adding more details are expected after the officials

visit the site.

However, authority dismissed speculations that the 'fireball' could be celestial debris, as the consortium of space agencies closely monitor any space related activities and would have notified the management of any such appearance. 

Kuriakose even dismissed the 'object' as anything related to 'metal' as Air Traffic Control radar system would have recorded it.

Meanwhile, science author and cosmology researcher, Rajagopal Kamath, said that the 'fireball' could be "a rocket or satellite debris. It also could be stony chondrite meteorites as in many places people have claimed that they have seen a bluish flame, which is peculiar to any meteorites."

The locals said they felt tremors and witnessed sounds with the passing of the 'object'.

"We saw a fireball like a meteor. Initially, we thought someone had burst a cracker. The doors and windows started shaking. Some thought there was an explosion somewhere," a local hailing from Kochi said. 

Image: Representative photograph