Unusually bright meteors known as fireballs were spotted in Europe on Saturday, with more than a hundred reports of colorful shooting stars in parts of the United Kingdom and France.
A video shot at 2:07 a.m. in Birmingham, England, shows a flash of blue light as a bright meteor screams across the night sky.
According to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), more than 100 reports of fireballs came in on Saturday around the same time from areas across England, Scotland, Wales and France.
More than a dozen videos shared with IMO capture the flash in the sky. Witnesses described the meteor as “beautiful and bright” and several witnesses stated it had a green color. The color change can be caused by the different metals present in metallic meteors burning as they interact with the Earth’s atmosphere.
One meteor spotter said the flash was so bright it seemed like “daytime,” according to an IMO witness report.
“I have been looking up at the night sky for years hoping to see something like this, what a sight to see,” wrote another witness in London.
According to NASA, fireballs are “extraordinarily bright meteors” that reach visual magnitude 3 or brighter by observers.
Fireball events can exceed a meter in size, and fireballs that explode in the atmosphere are called bolides.
A video shot at 2:07 a.m. in Birmingham, England, shows a flash of blue light as a bright meteor screams across the night sky. X/@JohnStew82 via REUTERS
One meteor spotter said the flash was so bright it seemed like “daytime,” according to an IMO witness report. Matt Cooper via Storyful
The Quadrantids meteor shower is underway, with peak activity on Jan. 4.
According to the American Meteor Society, the Quadrantids have the potential to be the strongest meteor shower of the year, but bad weather usually prevents viewing.
Other annual meteor showers have peak activity of one or two days, but the Quadrantids peak occurs over several hours with up to 120 meteors per hour, according to NASA.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
