Large Meteorite Falls on Peruvian Village and Sickens People

In a scene typically witnessed in a movie, residents of the Puno village in the Desaguadero region of Peru suddenly got sick after a large meteorite struck and left a hundred-foot-wide and twenty-foot-deep crater. Experts and rescue workers were dispatched to the impact site where people witnessed boiling water coming out of the crater. There were also reports of rock and cinder particles in the area.

Residents thought an airplane had crashed after people saw an explosion and a fireball. They then complained of a strange odor which caused them to vomit and get nauseated. Policemen who went to investigate had to be given oxygen to breathe and were later hospitalized. Much about the fumes and the meteorite that caused them are still a mystery as of press time. The meteorite is likely part of the Perseid shower which comes from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which is in an orbit that is expected to intersect that of Earth's, although not in the next thousand years. The photo of Swift-Tuttle above is by Gerald Rhemann.

For more news and a video of the impact site, jump to i-Mash.

Hole in Inca Skull Caused By Musket Ball

An Inca skull with a round hole was discovered among a pile of oddly-buried skeletons in Lima, Peru. Archaeologist Guillermo Cock says he immediately thought people may have been shooting guns at the site. But careful analysis of the hole showed that it was an old one and it had traces of metal which can only be attributed to a musket ball. The victim died along with others of his people in the 1500s, the time when Spanish conquistadors invaded their civilization and eventually, practically wiped their culture out.

Cock and fellow archaeologist Elena Goycochea have recovered 72 victims of apparent violence during that time. All were in shallow graves with no evidence of any ceremonies given the dead. They could have been buried by the Spanish soldiers themselves after an uprising against them which occurred in 1532.

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Thirteen Towers of Chankill Marked the Rising and Setting of the Sun

The ridges pictured here are the Thirteen Towers of Chankill in Peru. It is an ancient site which has been discovered to have been used by Sun worshippers who predated the Incas by two throusand years. The Sun viewed from two observation points would rise and set between two "towers" of the thirteen in the monument.