The internet is awash with footage of a meteor streaking through the night sky over Portugal and Spain, lighting up the sky in a blue-green fireball.
The meteor was confirmed by the European Space Agency (ESA), which captured the fireball on its cameras in Cáceres, Spain, at 6:46 p.m. EDT (22:46 UTC) on Saturday (May 18). ESA confirmed that the fireball was part of a comet that shot over Spain and Portugal at a speed of about 100,000 miles per hour, about 65 times the top speed of an F-16 fighter jet Lockheed Martin. The ESA added that the meteor likely burned up over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of about 38 miles (60 kilometers) above Earth.
Thousands of social media users took to X, Facebook and Reddit to discuss the glowing fireball and share stunning images and videos.
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ESA wrote in its X feed: “ESA’s fireball camera in Cáceres, Spain, spotted this stunning meteor last night! Our Planetary Defense Office is currently analyzing the object’s size and trajectory to assess the likelihood that material has reached the surface.”
☄️😍 ESA’s fireball camera in Cáceres, Spain, spotted this stunning meteor last night! Our Planetary Defense Office is currently analyzing the object’s size and trajectory to assess the likelihood that material reached the surface. Image credit: ESA/PDO/ AMS82 – AllSky7 pic.twitter.com/gSU4unncQWMay 19, 2024
X user Colin Rugg shared stunning footage of the meteor on his feed and wrote: “This is crazy. Early reports claim that the blue flash could be seen shooting hundreds of kilometers across the night sky. At this time, this is not confirmed.” However, according to some reports, if it had hit the earth’s surface, it could have fallen near the town of Castro Daire. Other reports say it was closer to Pinheiro.
JUST IN: Meteor spotted in the sky over Spain and Portugal. That’s crazy. Early reports said the blue flash could be seen shooting hundreds of kilometers across the night sky. It is currently not confirmed whether it hit the land. However, the earth’s surface is slightly… pic.twitter.com/PNMs2CDkW9May 19, 2024
News and media organization Nova Portugal also released footage of the fireball taken from various locations.
“A meteorite lit up Portugal’s sky a sparkling blue last night, to the surprise of residents who were outside at the time of its flight. Thousands of Portuguese shared their reactions to the event on social networks.”
#Event: A meteorite lights up the sky of Portugal 🇵🇹 A blue light illuminates here the surprise of the residents who appear outdoors at the moment of its passage sur les réseaux sociaux. pic.twitter.com/OE4HUCUr3FMay 19, 2024
Such “shooting stars” are pieces of material that break away from larger bodies such as asteroids, comets, the moon or other planets and penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. The friction experienced by these fragments called meteoroids (that’s what they’re called when they’re in space) causes them to glow brightly and become meteors for a few brief seconds as they streak through the atmosphere, leaving a glowing trail leave behind.
About 90 to 95% of the interstellar matter that reaches Earth this way doesn’t stay long enough to reach the ground. When a meteoroid reaches the ground, it is usually in the form of dust or very small particles and is called a meteorite.
Just as different chemical elements are used to create fireworks of different colors, the color of that fireball indicates its chemical composition.
The fireball’s bright blue-green flash indicates the combustion of magnesium. One type of meteorite known to contain magnesium are the “pallasites,” which contain large olive-green crystals, a form of magnesium-iron silicate called olivine.
Although the origin of pallasites is somewhat mysterious, scientists believe they could form when asteroids melt and denser material sinks into their core. Pallasites could come from the boundaries between an asteroid’s metallic core and its silicate, olivine-rich mantle.
If so, pallasites could teach scientists a lot about how rocky planets like Earth formed in the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago.
Of course, this meteorite has not yet been confirmed to be pallasite, and scientists don’t know whether any of it actually reached Earth, although the ESA says the chance of that is slim at best.
There is little doubt that the eruption of this fireball over Portugal and Spain will keep meteorite hunters busy for at least the coming days as they search for fragments that may have reached solid land.