By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Negros Occidental High School (NOHS) principal Mario Amaca revealed over the weekend that an expert coming from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) will visit their school in order to examine the alleged meteorite they recovered a week ago.
According to Amaca, a PENRO geologist will arrive at their school today in order to check the space rock, as well as to determine its mineral contents.
The meteorite which measured three-inches in diameter crashed at the school’s security barracks on the afternoon of June 4.
A meteorite is the term given to a piece of a comet or asteroid that falls into the Earth’s atmosphere and survives to hit the surface.
The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), meanwhile, stated that most space rocks smaller than a football field will break apart in Earth’s atmosphere.
Traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour, the object disintegrates as pressure exceeds the strength of the object, resulting in a bright flare.
Typically less than five percent of the original object will ever make it down to the ground. These meteorites, pieces of meteors that are found, typically range between the size of a pebble and a fist.
Earlier, Amaca said he plans to use the meteorite for the school’s science classes, although he does not discount the possibility that the space rock will be taken away by the national government and have it displayed in the National Museum of the Philippines in Metro Manila./DGB, WDJ