Major fireball seen over UK was probably space junk returning to Earth

Planetary scientists are racing to found the root of a agleam fireball seen implicit parts of the UK connected 14 September – the grounds truthful acold points to it being abstraction junk alternatively than a meteor

Space 15 September 2022

By Will Gater

The fireball seen successful galore parts of the UK connected the eveing of 14 September

UK Meteor Network/Twitter

Planetary scientists are moving to found the root of a bright fireball seen implicit Scotland, Northern Ireland and bluish England connected the evening of 14 September.

The spectacular event, astatine astir 10:00pm section time, was caught successful galore videos connected societal media, which showed a dazzling whitish-green airy moving astatine velocity crossed the sky, successful immoderate cases with a way of glowing worldly down it.

At the clip of writing, around 900 eyewitness accounts had been submitted to an planetary catalogue of fireball events maintained by the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization. Some observers adjacent reported proceeding a “rumble” pursuing the event, which archetypal investigation suggests occurred implicit a portion adjacent the islands of Islay and Arran.

It isn’t yet wide if the fireball was the effect of a meteoroid – a earthy abstraction stone – entering Earth’s ambiance and becoming a meteor oregon the re-entry of a portion of debris from quality abstraction activity, though aboriginal grounds does constituent to the latter.

“There is simply a reasonably precocious accidental that this is abstraction junk, unfortunately. [The fireball] had a precise shallow introduction angle, a important magnitude of fragmentation, which is emblematic of abstraction junk and it looks slowish, abstraction rocks thin to beryllium a spot faster. However, we’re inactive crunching the numbers to get a bully estimation connected the velocity which volition archer america for definite whether this is abstraction stone oregon abstraction not,” says Luke Daly, a planetary idiosyncratic astatine the University of Glasgow, UK, and subordinate of the UK Fireball Alliance.

“Meteors typically participate the ambiance astatine precise precocious speeds, 75 to 80 1000 miles per hour,” says John Maclean astatine the UK Meteor Network, whose cameras besides captured the phenomenon. This would equate to betwixt astir 121 and 129 kilometres per hour. “Space junk would beryllium overmuch slower astatine possibly 25 to 30 1000 miles per hr depending connected the archetypal orbit velocity.”

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