Scientists from Turkey and the United States have discovered the first written evidence of the death of a person from a meteorite fall. The research is published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
The first legends about the victims of meteorites date back to biblical times, but until now researchers could not confirm the information with documents. Specialists found new information in the Department of State Archives under the President of Turkey.
Scientists have discovered three letters in the Ottoman language. The texts say that on August 22, 1888, a meteorite entered the Earth's atmosphere and, when it fell, killed one person and also injured another in the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq.
Eyewitnesses reported that several objects fell on the settlement at once. This meteorite was remembered as a "fireball". The debris of the celestial body severely damaged crops in the fields, which, according to the researchers, indicates the impact of the shock wave.
Scientists have suggested that there may be other documents confirming such cases at one point or another in the world. Many of them may not be written in English, so they remain unnoticed by researchers.