Meteorite Causes Illness in Peru 357
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."
(Almost) Useless without pics (Score:5, Insightful)
Plutonium thermal generators (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Confirmation on this one? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Confirmation on this one? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Plutonium thermal generators (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not... (Score:5, Insightful)
According to the article (coral cache [nyud.net]), 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... (Score:3, Insightful)
And how do you know its composition? How do you know it's 30 inches wide? All the article tells us is the size of the impact crater. That's not nearly enough for the calculator.
Re:(Almost) Useless without pics (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Photo (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, project Wildfire.
Or is this more of a Threshold [cbs.com] situation.
Unless this is more like War of the Worlds [slashdot.org].
Maybe I just watch too much Sci-Fi.
Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not... (Score:3, Insightful)
Out of curiosity, how much would it take to generate an appreciable amount of heat? The idea of little nuclear pebbles slowly warming a robot on an alien world is kind of horrifying to me in sort of a primal way.
Re:Andromeda Strain!!! or not... (Score:1, Insightful)
radiation (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Perhaps Nickel Vapour (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Kryptonite Radiation (Score:1, Insightful)
Methinks some SCO stockholders somehow got mod points.
WOW! I found pictures [google.com] of the people who modded this!!! And here's another of today's mods! [theglobeandmail.com]
Oops, I think I know this mod [search.com] (they call her a "bus down")
-mcgrew [slashdot.org]
PS- ok, I was right the first time... it is SCO stockholders! [slashdot.org]
Re:Fungus is among us (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Impact unlikely (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Meteroite control! (Score:3, Insightful)