Fire in the Sky
On Tuesday, residents of the Chui and Bishkek region in Kyrgyzstan, a nation located in Central Asia, were surprised by a bright flash that illuminated the night sky intensely as it fell towards Earth. The phenomenon, presumably caused by a meteorite, is already being investigated by the corresponding authorities, local media report .
In the videos of the event, a bright white object can be observed falling towards our planet and illuminate, at least for a few moments, the clouds in the night sky with an intense light green color, before continuing its journey towards the earth's surface.
Weatherman Sean Batty told fans he spotted a "fireball dropping out of the sky".
The STV weather presenter took to social media to ask other Scots whether they had seen the very bright meteor.
He said: "Oh wow, did anyone else just spot that fireball dropping out of the sky there? Very bright meteor by the looks of it!"
It is understood to have come crashing through the atmosphere around 8.30pm tonight.
Sightings were reported from all over the country including in Fife and Inverclyde.
Many Scots took to Twitter to report similar sightings of the firework-like flash.
This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, La Hita (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada), and Madrid (Universidad Complutense). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).
This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, La Hita (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada), Calar Alto (Almería), and Madrid (Jaime Izquierdo, Complutense University of Madrid). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).
The fireball shot across the sky as we put up our Oshkosh Skycam.
The fireball comes from the right of the screen. It's faint, so you'll have to watch closely. The video is located above.
The American Meteorological Society meteor website shows multiple fireball reports in the United States Monday morning. Someone spotted it in North Fond du Lac. Did you see one? Click here to enter the report.
(View video here)
This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, La Hita (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada), Sierra Nevada (Granada) , Calar Alto (Almería), and Madrid (Jaime Izquierdo, Complutense University of Madrid).
The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).6:21h (local peninsular time) of the dawn of March 28, from all the central and southern areas of the country it has been possible to see how a bright ball of fire crossed the night sky.
The meteor was also detected by three meteor cameras belonging to the NASA Fireball Network and two cameras of the Southern Ontario Meteor Network, NASA said.
"A quick analysis of the best set of video data from these systems shows that the object first became visible 55 miles (88 kilometers) above the town of Greenstone, near the Pennsylvania/Maryland border," NASA noted. "Moving northwest at 51,000 miles per hour (23 kilometers per second), the fireball traversed 38 miles (61 kilometers) through the atmosphere before fragmenting 28 miles (45 kilometers) above the Pennsylvania town of Newburg."
The American Meteor Society recorded more than 75 sightings of the meteor early Sunday. Observers described the fireball as white or light blue with a bright tail.
At around 3pm, a report was made from the island's north coast of a streak of white light moving downward through the skies above the island.
Police and the coastguard were called but the island's harbourmaster said following inspection, and judging by images on social media, he was satisfied that it was in fact a meteor.
This dashcam footage sent in by Ian Dryhurst shows the white streak visible moving through the sky while he was driving along Victoria Avenue. The flash of light can be seen clearly in the centre of the screen.
Meteors are pieces of rock which burn up on entry to the Earth's atmosphere. According to NASA, an estimated 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day.
Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 68 reports (event 1767-2021) about a meteor fireball seen over Île-de-France, Bretagne, Centre-Val de Loire, England, Hauts-de-France, Normandie, Pays de la Loire, St. Ouen, Vlaanderen and Wales on Saturday, March 20th 2021 around 14:53 UT.
Across the English Channel a loud bang and 'earthquake-like' tremors were reported by residents in Dorset according to the Bournemouth Echo. The Ministry of Defence quashed rumours that RAF planes caused the boom reports the Dorset Echo.
Update: On 21 March Yahoo News UK reports:
A loud boom that was heard across four counties was likely caused by a meteor, it has emerged.Another meteor fireball was widely observed blazing across UK earlier this month, with a sonic boom reported.
Residents in parts of Devon, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset heard the sonic boom at around 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
Experts have confirmed that the loud bang was likely to have been related to the fireball meteor seen in Jersey.
The British Geological Survey tweeted on Saturday afternoon of a "probable sonic event" over Somerset, Devon and Dorset.
Richard Kacerek, co-founder of the UK Meteor Observation Network, told Yahoo News: "This is a meteor we see on the pictures and videos.
"The reports we got seem to support this was a fireball meteor. The loud bang heard after this event seems likely to be related."
Seeing a fireball in the daytime is "extremely rare", he said, and would have to be "a very large bolide class to be visible during the day".
Meanwhile a record number of asteroids were observed flying past Earth last year - despite lockdowns interrupting surveys!
Comment: For another video of this event, see: Bright meteor fireball captured over Pittsburgh