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View Full Version : Huge fireball crosses the UK skies 9:40pm, 3rd March, 2012



Lee
03-04-2012, 02:15 PM
The are lots of reports emerging of a "Huge" fireball seen crossing the UK skies last night at 9:40pm, quite possibly this was a bollide meteor, but I have heard one local report of a "square shaped object, trailing pink and orange light":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnWnY4ADck&feature=player_embedded

Garuda
03-04-2012, 02:31 PM
The BBC reported on it as well:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17248959

The headline says 'meteor witnessed' while the article goes on to quote the Met Office saying it was a meteorite.

norenrad
03-04-2012, 05:58 PM
Most meteors I see are traveling at a downward angle, that one looks like it's "skimming" the atmosphere. About a month ago, I saw a smaller one that did about the same thing, but it was moving faster, probably looked that way because it was closer.

Doc
03-04-2012, 06:41 PM
The Telegraph has coverage as well:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/nightsky/9121668/Police-called-as-large-meteor-appears-over-UK.html

Police called as large meteor appears over UK

"A mysterious, slow-moving bright light appeared in the night sky above northern Britain on Saturday, trailing bewilderment and wonder in its wake.


Some questioned whether aliens were about to land, with one woman tweeting: “UFO invasion?! Ball of fire flew past my window!” Others called the Police. The most likely explanation, though, was an unusually bright shooting star, or meteor. Thousands of people spotted the chunk – or possibly chunks - of roughly fist-sized space rock burning up while coming through the earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 60 or 70 miles or so at about 10pm."

Lee
03-04-2012, 07:58 PM
What's interesting about these reports is that the object seems to have tracked across the entire UK, from North to South, with reports coming in from Scotland, here in the North west, right through to the South coast. I'd like to see if we can determine exactly how long it took this object to cover that distance.

So far it seems the earliest reports were at 9:40pm, probably over Scotland, local reports here put it a 9:45pm, and the Telegraph article above is saying 10:00pm. So we may be looking at somewhere in the region of 20 mins.

Doc
03-04-2012, 08:03 PM
What's interesting about these reports is that the object seems to have tracked across the entire UK, from North to South, with reports coming in from Scotland, here in the North west, right through to the South coast. I'd like to see if we can determine exactly how long it took this object to cover that distance.

So far it seems the earliest reports were at 9:40pm, probably over Scotland, local reports here put it a 9:45pm, and the Telegraph article above is saying 10:00pm. So we may be looking at somewhere in the region of 20 mins.

Would that suggest it was a slower moving object?

CasperParks
03-04-2012, 09:29 PM
Thanks for sharing the video link... Wonder where it came down at....

Lee
03-04-2012, 11:15 PM
Would that suggest it was a slower moving object?
To be honest, Doc. I don't know, that's what I'd like to find out. I'm also hoping some of our members might have a better idea? ;)