Experts have confirmed that the huge "fireball" spotted flying through Scottish skies on Wednesday (September 14) at around 9pm was in fact a meteor. At first, there was much speculation about whether the "shooting star" was space junk due to its shockingly clear visibility in the sky.
Speaking to the Guardian, astronomer John Maclean, said that meteors tend to enter the atmosphere at around 75,000 and 80,000 mph and usually lasts a matter of seconds. Space junk is visible for much longer however as it enters at a much lower speed of around 25,000-30,000 mph.
Despite this however, the meteor spotted above Scotland was visible for a full 20 seconds - which is long in terms of meteorological phenomena. Many people posted videos and pictures to social media with some claiming the object was so low they could hear it.
Could it have been Elon Musk?
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellites that provide internet connection were the first to be accused despite being designed to disintegrate upon re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The UK Meteor Network checked the de-orbit of the company's satellites however and found that there wasn't anything near the UK area. The units only tend to be only 2.8 meters long also and burn up easily.
Experts were also stunned at the way in which the meteor broke up which was much more similar to space debris. Meteors do break-up but usually at the end of their trajectory.
Read more: Huge 'meteor' spotted in sky over Scotland as residents left stunned
After analysing the many videos sent to them by the public and liaising with meteor physics postdoctoral researcher Denis Vida, the network confirmed on it's Twitter it is 100% confident this was a small part of an asteroid.
Where was the meteor going?
The UK Meteor Network has 172 detection cameras recording meteors and fireballs all over the UK.
After gathering enough intelligence about velocities and attitudes yesterday (September 15), the community of scientists deduced that the meteor travelled North Westerly directly over Belfast and Scotland. It came into asteroid orbit and entered the atmosphere at 20:59 UTC travelling at 14.2 km/s with the observed portion of the trajectory covering over 300km.
Did the meteor land?
Orbital analysis from the the network's UKMon camera network didn't catch the very end of the trajectory however the scientists believe it definitely ended over the North Atlantic Ocean 50-100 km west of the Isle of Islay. Any debris or smaller meteors that may have broken off would have fallen into the sea.
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