Meteorite Causes Illness in Peru

eldavojohn writes "A meteorite struck in Peru on Saturday leaving cinders, rock & water boiling out of the ground. Villagers nearby reported headaches & vomiting and attributed it to the event. From the article, 'Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said. Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 100-foot-wide (30-meter-wide) and 20-foot-deep (six-meter-deep) crater, said local official Marco Limache.' It's not yet clear whether this is from the meteorite, gas trapped underground that was released or a chemical reaction between the two."

Comments

(Almost) Useless without pics

[blind biker]

Now tell me: who here doesn't want to see the darn crater? Of all things in TFA, what I really missed is a picture of the crater that the alleged meteorite created. Just seeing it would give us some idea of whether it was a meteorite at all, and if so, how big.

Plutonium thermal generators

[swb]

I thought I'd read those were built to withstand re-entry without vaporizing or breaking open. I seem to recall Danger-Will-Robinson arm-waving paranoia about these thermal generators the last time NASA sent one up, but the NASA boys being basically on top of it and packaging them in a way that wasn't a threat.

Re:Plutonium thermal generators

[Itchyeyes]

And the Titanic was built to not sink, and Chernobyl was built not to melt down, and Challenger was built not to explode, and the Tacoma Narrows bridge was built not to collapse, etc, etc, etc...

Re:Confirmation on this one?

[Akaihiryuu]

It's gotta be a Leviathan, the strange substance is Phazon. Someone tag this with phazon or metroidprime.

Re:Confirmation on this one?

[Goaway]

Even if it is "true", it is more likely than anything else mass hysteria.

Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not...

[AKAImBatman]

PU-238 would be an unlikely source of problems of this sort. Most of the radiation is Alpha Particles which are easily rejected by human skin. (Alpha particle dangers are almost entirely due to internal consumption.) Even if we take possible Gamma and X-Ray emissions from long decay into account, the people who were near the meteor shouldn't feel sick until an hour or two after the exposure.

According to the article (coral cache), the problem was a "strange odor" that caused the headaches and vomiting. Such an odor suggests a strong chemical of some sort that has been aerosolized near the point of impact. The officials will probably send out a Hazmat team, take air samples, collect the debris from the crash and investigate the exact composition. (Assuming that the authorities have the necessary resources. Otherwise they'll probably get someone to dispose of it and let the air clear.)

Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not...

[CheshireCatCO]

Far too expensive for anyone other than NASA to use. Almost true. Lose one of the A's and you'd get another agency that's known to use RTGs on satellites. (Shortly after 9/11, the plutonium that was to be used for New Horizons was suddenly reallocated to an "unnamed Federal agency". It wasn't NASA, New Horizons was their only mission to the outer solar system being prepared just then. Most people were able to conclude, reasonably, that the RTGs were heading for spy sats.)

Re:Perhaps Nickel Vapour

[Otter]

No one has mentioned what I think is the likeliest explanation: hysteria unrelated to any physical cause.

Re:Fungus is among us

[ultramk]

Anthrax? It's a good thing it didn't hit the US, otherwise we'd blame Al Qaeda for the attack and launch an invasion of space.

No, space is where it actually came from, and that's the last place the current administration would look.
The obvious next step would be to nuke Iran.