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Journalism of Courage
Geologists in Rajasthan are baffled by large meteorites falling on western Rajasthan at regular intervals over the past few years.
Scientists struggling to identify the cause of this celestial shower, have found the presence of amino acids and other life-supporting organic compounds in the meteorites, which has led to an interesting hypothesis: Life could have originated outside earth.
Since 1995, at least 10 meteorites have fallen on various villages in western Rajasthan. The number could be more as many such incidents go unreported.
“This is strange. Generally, chances of a meteorite falling in an area is once in 2000 years,” says Prof B S Paliwal, head, Department of Geology, Jodhpur University. Also, the meteorites usually fall around the equator. The regular fall in Thar is thus unexplained.
The first such fall was reported in 1994. The meteorites usually fall between April-July. “Perhaps this is the time when these bodies come into earth’s sphere of attraction and fall on this region because of its position at that time. This is a theory that needs to be analysed,” says Dr M S Sisodia, a geologist at Jodhpur University, who has been studying the phenomenon.
“It may sound funny but there are possibilities that life may have originated on some other planet like Mars,” says Dr Sisodia, who presented a paper on the subject at NASA.
