BREAKING NEWS

TAU expert: Ynet's falling ‘meteorite’ is a hoax

By JUDY SIEGEL

APRIL 25, 2010 17:35

A Tel Aviv University scientist who viewed a Ynet film claimed to show a small "meteorite" landing on a Bat Yam beach told The Jerusalem Post that it seemed clear to him that it was "an outright hoax. Whoever did it lied." The expert ridiculed the media for getting so excited about it.

Tons of meteorites fall towards Israel every day, said the scientist, who declined to be named, "but none of them look like what appeared in the Internet site’s film. It showed something that looked like a yellow cucumber burn and fall into the water and remaining on fire and smoking as it went in. Meteorites arrive cold after falling through the atmosphere. They are not on fire," he said.

The expert said the "thing" looked like it was made of rubber with some oxidating material that kept it on fire. He also noted that the Ynet film had the stamp of "telaviv.police.gov.il" on it, when the official Tel Aviv police Web site made no mention of such an event.

Although police reporters said they were told that the "meteorite" had been taken to the Geological Institute in Jerusalem "for examination," the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is in charge of the institute, said "no one called us and we know nothing about any ‘meteorite’ being brought to us."

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