Residents in Scotland and Northern England were stunned to witness a likely meteor gliding through the sky, describing the event as “unbelievable” and “stunning”.
The UK Meteor Network confirmed that they have received more than 200 reports of “a fireball spotted” at 10pm on Wednesday, with most sightings coming from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The celestial phenomenon was captured on cameras, showing a brightly lit object flying at a downward angle followed by a huge tail.
“Did I legit just see a shooting star in Motherwell or is that something crashing out the sky?” Rhiannon Hayes, a Twitter user, said in a video now going viral.
Several comments followed the video, sharing a video from the same time in different locations.
“Hi Barra, spotted this just now. At first I thought it was a firework, no noise and it didn’t explode quickly got my phone out, are we due any meteor showers or anything?” another said.
A CCTV camera footage in Linlithgow, West Lothian, captured the fireball hurlting through the sky in the distance.
Some users who witnessed the astronomical sighting said they have never seen anything like this before.
“Yep, spotted in central Glasgow about 30 mins ago - much bigger than anything I have ever seen before,” a user said.
Another said: “I just seen it in Glasgow around 10pm!! Never seen anything like it!”
“Me and my 2 daughters saw the meteor, it was unbelievable but one of my younger daughters was terrified,” said another.
The UK Meteor Network, a group with a network of 170 detection cameras recording meteors and fireballs over the UK, said they are “investigating to ascertain what the object was — a meteor or space debris”.
Just a month ago, officials in Utah in the US said a loud boom followed by a few seconds of rumbling was heard across the region, likely caused by a meteor crash.
