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Midnight hit

on December 13, 1997 at 3 am, K Ramulu of Vissannapeta village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh heard a rumbling sound in the sky followed by a big thud. He found a heavy object lying on the gunny bag which he had spread on his roof. Ramulu, fearing that it was a bomb called the police, who handed it over to the revenue authorities. Expertise of the Geological Survey of India ( gsi ) was sought to determine what the object was. According to the senior geologist, C Rama Mohan, the 1.3 kg rock was an "aerolite', one of the three types of meteorites, made of silicate.

According to the A K Moitra, director petrology division of the gsi, meteorites provide a wealth of information about the solar system and outer space which cannot be collected from studies on terrestrial material. He said till now no human being has been killed by a falling meteorite. Some meteorites happen to be carbonaceous, indicating possibility of extraterrestrial life, since carbon is essential to life.

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