Meteor
© Mirror News, UKFrazzled: A meteor burns up in the Earth's atmosphere.
After travelling millions of miles through the galaxy, a blazing meteor finally went out with a bang above a Welsh town.

The force of the explosion at 11pm last night rattled windows, set off car alarms and woke up children.

One resident described it as "like a bomb going off".

Amateur astronomers had watched its progress as it sped over North West England and North Wales before it blew up over Cwmbran in South Wales.

Homeowner Steve Edwards, 56, said: "There was an enormous boom - It sounded like a bomb going off.

"The force of it shook the windows in my house, woke up my children and caused car alarms to start going off in the streets.

"I'm just glad none of it landed on my roof."

Another witness, Nathan Jones, 34, said: "I've never seen something so amazing in my life.

"It had a heat trail behind, it was orange and white and very bright, and also seemed very close.

"It looked like it was skimming through the atmosphere due to the curved path it was taking."

Police and coastguards had dozens of reports of a bright flash in the sky followed by the loud bang.

Hannah Sabido, 33, who spotted the meteor from her home in Bristol, said: "It looked like a bright white ball with a long bright tail and possibly a green hue.

"It was brighter than the moon."

Space expert Dr David Whitehouse explained that the rock was only the size of a golf ball and would have burned up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere, leaving an incredibly bright tail.

Much larger objects which could cause a catastrophe only hit our planet once in tens of millions of years.

He said: "Scientists will now be very keen to know if it's survived so they can try and collect it and examine it.

"As for the rest of us, we don't have anything to fear from a meteor of this size. There's no records of anyone having been killed by such a thing.

"Very rarely something large will come into contact with the Earth, like the one which helped the dinosaurs on their way - that was the size of Britain.

"But this meteor is a wonder of nature, something in the night sky to be admired and enjoyed."

* See how the meteor was reported in our sister websites the Manchester Evening News and WalesOnline .