It was a meteorite, say Peru astronomers

Peruvian astronomers said on Thursday that evidence shows a meteorite crashed near Lake Titicaca over the weekend, leaving an elliptical crater and magnetic rock fragments in an impact powerful enough to register on seismic charts.

As other astronomers learned more details, they too said it appears likely that a legitimate meteorite hit Earth on Saturday — an rare occurence. The Earth is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the planet’s surface. Only one in a thousand rocks that that people claim are meteorites turn out to be real, according to Jay Melosh, an expert on impact craters and professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona.

Melosh was skeptical at first, initially calling it a “non-meteorite” and suggesting that the crater might have possibly come from below as a volcanic eruption.