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A large meteor was visible at 4.55 local time this Friday from almost all of Puerto Rico as reported by the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC).

"Although most meteors are only visible for a few seconds, this event was significant since images that we managed to capture show that it was visible for 27 seconds, that is almost half a minute," said Eddie Irizarry, vice president of the SAC.

"It looked bigger and bigger, it didn't look like a common meteor," said Idaly Correa, who witnessed the spectacular sighting from the municipality of Guayanilla.

The SAC director clarified that despite the long duration of the meteor, it was not space debris, but a natural meteor, that is, a space rock disintegrating through the atmosphere.


He estimated that it was a rock between 2 and 5 meters in diameter whose trajectory shows that it began to disintegrate at a height of 70 miles (110 kilometers) over northwestern Puerto Rico, near Isabela and moved east in direction to the small island of Culebra.

"Several cameras that we have in different parts of the island show that it began to be visible at 4.55 with 35 seconds, and culminating at 4.56 with 2 seconds. It practically crossed the sky almost from one end to the other", highlighted Juan Gonzรกlez Alicea, president of the SAC.

The scientific entity explained that the long duration of the meteor was due to a combination of being a larger rock than those that cause sightings of common meteors, since it penetrated the atmosphere at a not very inclined angle, that is, almost from the side, by what disintegration occurred across much of the sky.

Alex Guadalupe, from the SAC, was able to observe it from the metropolitan area and was surprised not only by its apparent size and extensive tail, but also because it showed a turquoise green color, which according to the SAC suggests that the rock contained magnesium and copper.

(Translated by Google)