Meteor Impacts Jakarta: "Colours" Populace

Per press releases 3 May 2010
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Blast in East Jakarta Believed to Be Meteorite
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Police and astronomers are investigating Thursday’s blast from a falling object that damaged three homes in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta --- witnesses claim it was a meteorite strike.

Experts are combing the site, saying that while there was no conclusive proof the damage was caused by a meteorite, it was the most likely explanation.

One house was moderately damage and two adjoining properties suffered minor damage after blast on Jalan Delima II. There were no reported casualties.

No fragments of the projectile had yet been found but the deep crater in the floor of the house, the residual heat footprint and melted items pointed to a meteorite.
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The incident comes on the heels of the Lyrid meteor shower, which ended on Monday, but an expert ruled out any connection between the two. “It could, however, be part of the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaks on May 7 and 8,” he said. The phenomenon often begins in late April.

“Another possibility is that this wasn’t a meteorite at all, but man-made space debris like a satellite,” Evan said.

Police, meanwhile, are pursuing their own line of investigation. Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said the Densus 88 counterterrorism squad had been called in to search for possible traces of explosives.

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Last October, a mysterious explosion in Bone, South Sulawesi, was determined to have been a meteorite that hit the Earth’s atmosphere at a mind-boggling 20.3 kilometers per second.

According to Thomas Djamaluddin, head of atmospheric sciences and chief of astronomy research at Lapan, the blast released energy equal to about 50 kilotons of TNT, more than three times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of World War II.

A 9-year-old girl suffered a fatal cardiac arrest after hearing the explosion, and shock waves damaged homes in a village.