A dramatic blazing blue fireball raced across the sky over the weekend in Portugal, Spain, and France, leaving witnesses dumbfounded.
The International Meteor Organization reported:
“Many people were out in Spain and Portugal on Saturday night. The ones that were fortunate enough to be located in the Western parts of the Iberic peninsula could observe a dramatic meteoric event: a huge and fast moving fireball appeared in the sky and nearly turned it into daylight on May 18, at 22h 46min UT.”
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☄️ On May 18, 22h 46min UT, a huge fireball turned Spanish and Portuguese night into daylight: https://t.co/1ECA36FpiP pic.twitter.com/KI1Ajn6ZhV
— IMO Meteor Org. (@IMOmeteors) May 19, 2024
“The phenomenon was widely observed and filmed. … The high speed of the asteroid combined with its long-lasting period made it visible on more than 450 km (280 miles)!”
The view of the fireball in Cadiz, Spain
According to IMO, the object ended its journey in the Atlantic Ocean.
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https://twitter.com/accuweather/status/1792238797326836002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1792238797326836002%7Ctwgr%5E76d4030a828b04a54d9653030eb89415877df394%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeedly.com%2Fi
“Fireballs are meteors that appear brighter as the pieces of space dust made up of rock, ice, and metal hit Earth’s atmosphere,” Fox Weather reported.
“The type of material that composes the meteor will determine the color we see on Earth as it shoots across the sky.”
“According to NASA, meteors containing magnesium can create a blue-green light like those across Western Europe saw over the weekend.”
It noted:
“A fireball will be brighter than any other object in the sky besides the Sun and the Moon. According to the IMO, a true fireball meteor can survive the journey to Earth’s surface.”
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https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1792106330267799685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1792106330267799685%7Ctwgr%5E76d4030a828b04a54d9653030eb89415877df394%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeedly.com%2Fi
Business Standard reported:
Social media users were bewildered with the sight, some could be seen admiring the brightness, comparing it to magnesium. While many others contemplated the frequency of such events especially when coinciding with other celestial phenomena like aurora borealis and solar eclipses.
One of the users wrote:
“This has got to be the craziest meteor footage I’ve ever seen. I bet seeing it in person was mind blowing.”
Another user wrote:
“Mesmerizing… in fact, so mesmerizing that people forget they are even recording lol.”
One of the users explained that the different colours happen when different elements burn up.
Here the colour was likely Magnesium. Violet (calcium) Red (atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen) Orange-yellow (sodium) Yellow (iron) Blue-green (magnesium).”
