Could a fallen meteorite cause a fire?

Almost every year to the surface of ourPlanets are falling dozens of cosmic bodies - meteorites. In 2013, one of them fell in Chelyabinsk, as a result of which buildings were damaged and several people were injured. Recently, something similar to a meteorite was seen by residents of the island of Chiloe, located in the southern part of the US state of Chile. Almost immediately after observing a luminous object in the sky, in the territory of the city of Dalkaue located on the island, areas of land burnt by fire were discovered. Local residents decided that the cause of the fire was a fallen meteorite. But was the meteorite really a luminous object and in general, can space objects falling on our planet cause a fire?

Meteorites regularly fall on our planet, but we don’t notice it.

Meteorites are cosmic bodies,that billions of years fly in outer space and ultimately fall to the surface of large planets. By themselves, they are cold objects made up of materials that exist on Earth. In particular, they include iron, nickel, magnesium, sulfur, and other chemical elements common on our planet. Bright light of meteorites arises during their braking in the atmosphere of the planet - the object rubs against particles of the atmosphere and ignites.

A meteorite fell in Chile

According to an astrophysicist named Jose Masa, ifthe cause of fires in Chile was really a body that fell from outer space, it was clearly not a meteorite. He explained this by the fact that during flights in airless space for billions of years, small space objects are very cooled, so when they rub against the Earth’s atmosphere, they can hardly heat up to high temperatures.

Se reporta caída de meteorito en mocopulli chiloe pic.twitter.com/7w3KGEgnln

- marcelo macaya (@mmacaya) September 25, 2019

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Chilean astrophysicist's assumption wasverified by mining service geologists Sernageomin. They interviewed people living near the places of fires - none of them saw the moment of a meteorite’s fall and did not hear any noise. Some sources claim that the meteorite fell into several parts and about seven fragments were found at the places of fires. Only here there are no photos or videos with these debris on the Internet.

If the meteorite really fell, it would make a sound boom

Space debris hazard

Thus, scientists with confidence excludedmeteorite guilt in fires. However, they do not deny the likelihood that space debris that fell to the ground was the cause of the fire. Unlike meteorites, these objects could well have heated up to temperatures that could set fire to plants. However, this assumption requires evidence - geologists have already taken soil samples and intend to carefully study them. If the theory of space debris is confirmed, scientists will have to find out the cause of its fall. However, this will not be surprising, because at the moment in the orbit of our planet you can find thousands of fragments of failed satellites.

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Some publications call the fallen in Chilecosmic body of an unidentified flying object. For that matter, it would not be out of place to mention the recent news that the US Navy has confirmed that they have seen the so-called “unidentified air events” several times. It has still not been possible to find out what cameras installed on military fighter jets have recorded. Maybe the soldiers met with aliens?