Meteor: Amateurs Vs Scientists

Awaiting the final report on the rock at Crpatna

The amateur scientists who stole the attention of the media after identifying a rock at Jogipura in Channarayapatna taluk as meteor could not answer to the posers of the scientists in Hassan on Monday.

Participating in an interaction held at the press club the amateur scientists T Vijaykumar, Praveen Wodeyar and Sridhar Hegde had to face a volley of questions from the scientists and reporters.

Vijaykumar and Praveen Wodeyar said that after examining the rock in Jogipur it was found that it consisted rare minerals. When it was compared with the reports of some studies of American universities, the primary report showed it might be a meteor.

As there were reports of widening of the existing highway where the rock is located and possibilities of destroying the rock, we publicised the issue and submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioners. Our intention was to protect the rare rock, they added.

But when scientists from the department of Mines and Geology Hanumantha Reddy, H M Harish, Dwithiya sought clarifications from them, the amateurs could not produce a convincing reply and tried to manage the show by saying that their primary probe identified that it was a rare rock and are awaiting the final report, only after which they can confirm their findings.

The amateurs did not have answers for why they did not send a sample of the rock to ISRO or Geological Survey of India, why did they have to inform the media without doing proper research, why did they not try to publish the same in various science journals, why should they create chaos before really finding whether the rock is destroyed for road widening, Mica is found on the rock which is usually not found on meteors and a lot more posed by the reporters and scientists.

Completely taken aback by these questions, the so-called scientists who said it was 100 per cent meteor on television channels said that if the final report confirms that it is not a meteor, they will agree.