Deborah Smith; 28/12/09
An Aboriginal Dreaming story about a star crashing to earth with a noise like thunder has led to the discovery of an ancient meteorite crater in central Australia. A Sydney astronomer, Duane Hamacher, found the bowl-shaped crater in Palm Valley, about 130 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, by searching on Google Earth. He was inspired to look there after learning of traditional stories told by the local Arrernte people about a star that had fallen into a waterhole called Puka in the valley. Mr Hamacher, a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, said that reality matching the Dreaming story could be a case of pure chance. ”But if so, it’s an incredible coincidence,” he said.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/national/google-dreaming-lead-to-crater-20091227-lg9e.html
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Environment
The real story can be found here… from the horse’s mouth.
http://www.warawara.mq.edu.au/aboriginal_astronomy/Puka.html