Just fifteen minutes before last Saturday midnight local time, a meteor sped across the sky, leaving a dazzling green light and culminating in a fireball flash that astonished onlookers in Spain and Portugal with an unexpected celestial show.
The meteor, widely reported on social media and thought to be comet debris, attracted a lot of attention. The European Space Agency (ESA) reports that the meteor broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean at a height of about sixty kilometers (37 miles).
José María Madiedo, a scientist at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics, calculated the meteor’s speed using data from the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. Madiedo calculated the meteor’s entry velocity into Earth’s atmosphere to be over 100,000 miles per hour (161,000 km/h).
Many people saw the fantastic green light, which is thought to have been caused by nickel in the meteor. The striking green hue was created as nickel burnt in Earth’s atmosphere. The American Meteor Society states that a fireball’s color can be increased by its kinetic energy, which suggests that the meteor’s high velocity contributed to the flash’s intensity.
Despite their breathtaking beauty, meteor showers are not uncommon. Anyone can see a meteor shower at any time; on any given night, two to seven meteors can be seen each hour on average. Alison Klesman’s article “Do meteor showers create meteorites?” thoroughly analyzes the subject for anyone wanting to learn more. It’s crucial to remember that meteorites are space rock particles that survive their spectacular fall to Earth, unlike meteors.
Here’s a glimpse of the spectacular event:
