Fireball
© Newtownabbey TimesSpotted high in the sky above Ballyclare by Trevor McCusker, it's thought this object may be a fireball carrying information on the ancient history of the solar system.

Meteorites, fireballs or maybe something more extra-terrestrial may have been seen in the Ballyclare sky in the past fortnight.

Eagle-eyed Ballyclare man Trevor McCusker sent these pictures in of three strange objects he spotted in the night sky.

On Tuesday, July 5, the photographer spotted what he described as a "red ball" in the sky around 11pm.

He said: "It was like a football, It was going very fast from south west to north east. It had no tail just a round ball of fire."

Then on the following Saturday, July 9, he spotted a dark object in the sky at around 9pm.

"It was a black type colour object in the sky," he said.

"On the bottom left hand side of the object it was red. It was coming close to earth, I ran into the house and got my camera but by then it had went back up into the sky by the time I got the photograph.

"About two-and-a-half hours later I saw another red long object. It also came close to earth and went back up into the sky."

According to the Armagh Observatory a similar report has been made of a fireball in the sky above Ballyeaston village on July 1.

Astronomer John McFarland could not verify these latest witness accounts, but said sightings were not particularly rare.

He said: "Every year there is over 40,000 tons of space debris which falls to the earth. Some of it can be as small as a grain of sand or up to the size of an apple."