A mysterious illness strikes a rural area of Peru after something falls from the sky. Sounds like the plot line for some sort of sci-fi movie involving aliens right? Well, this time its really happening! On Saturday afternoon (9/15) residents of the remote Puno region of Peru noticed a bright "fireball" descend out of the daytime sky and crash to the ground. When residents went to the crash site they found the crater pictured above. The crater is about 100 feet wide and about 20 feet deep. Scientists have investigated and now believe that it was indeed a fireball meteor. Meteor impacts of this size are very rare. The energy released during impact could have been as much as a small tactical nuke or 1 Kiloton of TNT. After visiting the site, residents complained that it "smelled bad" and furthermore several of the local residents began to become ill! 200 residents have now been treated for various problems including migraines, vomiting, dizziness, and other various symptoms. Scientist have now determined that the residents didn't become sick from the meteor itself but from gas that was disturbed by the impact. The region of Puno, Peru is a geologically active area with hot springs, earthquakes, and even volcanoes and that likely explains the gas. Scientists plan to drain the water out of the crater in the hopes of finding the actual meteorite.

During the last week there has been a large number of reported fireball meteors. Several have even been caught on video by astronomers. My camera caught two meteors on Sunday morning and can be viewed here. I also received a email on Monday night from a individual in Northwest Arkansas who (while walking his dog) saw a bright fireball meteor steak all the way to the horizon. You can keep up with the Peru Meteorite story and other space weather stories by visiting spaceweather.com