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.
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