[1][2] It is based on the account of a single investigator who interviewed witnesses to the purported event and then wrote a letter to the Vatican Observatory.
The event received little attention until 1995, when British astronomer Mark E. Bailey found in the Vatican Library archives a 1931 issue of L'Osservatore Romano, which contained a dispatch from the Franciscan friar Fedele d'Alviano.
Inspired by Bailey's article and based on images from Landsat satellites, the Brazilian astrophysicist Ramiro de la Reza attempted to find an astrobleme—the remains of a meteorite impact crater.
He explored a circular feature measuring 1 km in diameter, to the southeast of the village of Argemiro, but found no evidence for impact.
[2] In the first week of June 1997, de la Reza led an expedition organized by Rede Globo and co-financed by ABC Television of Australia, to the region where the event is said to have occurred.