Did a Meteorite, or Nerdy Hoaxsters, Strike Latvia?
Sometimes, the sky really is falling, and other times it just seems that way. Near the small town of Mazsalaca, Latvia on Sunday night, an object appeared to have crashed into the ground, leaving a gaping hole about more than 25 feet across. A YouTube video of the incident featured a group of excitable Latvians rushing to the hole and exclaiming their astonishment with English swear words. But something about this presumed meteorite impact seemed fishy and conflicting reports emanated from the Baltic state about the nature of the incident. From stateside, it was impossible to tell what caused the hole just by looking at photos posted to a Latvian website. “It could be a piece of space debris from a spacecraft, it could be a weird explosion, or it could be a meteorite,” said Michael Zolensky, a meteorite specialist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The only way to know, though, is to dig it up.” Now that Latvian scientists are examining the scene in the light of day, it appears to be a v
