* Astronomy

A meteorite that fell in Piplia Kalan, a western Rajasthan village, has changed the way scientists think about the birth of the solar system.
Piplia Kalan is a small, nondescript village in Pali district in western Rajasthan. People outside the district would not even have heard its name. Yet, it is a name familiar to planetary scientists and astronomers, and a casual search on Google for 'Piplia Kalan' will fetch you many entries. It does not owe its fame to any natural calamity or scandal but to a piece of a meteorite.
A shooting star fell on an uncultivated farm on the outskirts of Piplia Kalan on June 20, 1996, around 8-30 in the evening. Most villagers were probably enjoying the summer evening outside their homes, and the meteor that streaked brightly across the sky did not escape their notice.
The 'Piplia Kalan' meteorite was rather small by the standards of famous meteorites. I t did not even weigh 50 kg - so it was far from being dangerous like the one that is believed to have brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs, or even the one that in 1908 exploded over Siberia and destroyed a forest there. The Piplia Kalan meteorite was tiny in comparison. Yet, the surviving fragment of this meteorite contained an extraordinary piece of information, which has changed the way scientists think about the birth of the solar system.



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Latitude= 26.03485 Longitude= 73.94151