An explosion in Northern Ireland that had been blamed on terrorists was in fact caused by a meteorite. A loud blast wakened the people of Belleek at 5 am on 13 December 1997. On 6 January, a 1.2-metre-wide crater and the remains of an aluminium water trough and milk churn were discovered. The churn had a glassy rock fragment embedded in it. Tom Mason of the Armagh Planetarium believes a 20-centimetre fragment of the comet Phaeton was responsible.
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.