Recently, NASA asked an Australian school for details of a reported meteorite crash on their campus. However, turns out, despite grabbing the world's most prominent space agency's attention, the crash was fake news.
According to a?7 News?report, information about a meteorite crashing into the grounds of a school in Queensland began to go viral after photos from the 'space landing' were shared on Facebook. The images were shared on a Facebook page called 'Australia crash investigation unit'.
The photographs showed a huge, charred rock smoldering on the grass. The post has more than 2,000 comments and 2.4k shares till now.?
"We've had all sorts of inquiries from all around the world, including NASA who asked us to make a report to the Kennedy Space Centre," Malanda State School principal, Mark Allen, told 7 News.
However, as it turned out, the 'meteorite' was just a school project.?
The school's journalism students were assigned the task of reporting on the 'meteorite' landing, interviewing witnesses and talking to emergency personnel as part of the assignment.?
#Meteorite Malanda State High School Police operating???Malanda State School: Project of meteorite
Posted by Australia crash investigation unit on?Sunday, January 31, 2021
"The local police loved to get involved for the school and the kids to make it more realistic. This is a small town, they didn't expect it (school project) to go viral," a local resident was quoted as saying by the?Daily Mail.?