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INCREDIBLE footage captured the moment a comet travelling at 1,700mph lit up the night sky in a rare spectacle.
Stargazers were left stunned as the fireball shot turned the pitch-black sky into greenish blue in parts of Spain and Portugal.
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ReutersAmazing footage captured by the dashcam of a car in Portugal shows a dazzling blue-coloured fireball-shaped object with a long tail falling from the sky.
Within moments, the blazing object explodes to paint the entire sky in the shade of blue.
A different footage captured by the European Space Agency (ESA) showed the object illuminating the sky over the western Spanish city of Caceres into hues of blue and green.
ESA said the blue light streaking across the sky was a “stunning meteor” travelling at roughly 1,700mph.
The agency later revealed the object was a “small piece of a comet” and not a meteor.
“The likelihood of any meteorites being found is very low,” it added.
The comet is said to have burned up over the Atlantic Ocean after the spectacular show.
According to Nasa, the presence of magnesium in such comets creates a blue-green colour when it falls from the sky and burns.
It comes after a mysterious blazing fireball lit up the sky in China before it shattered and vanished.
Shocking footage captured by residents of Beijing showed the strange object falling from the night sky before breaking into smaller pieces as it got closer to the ground.
It was burning so bright that it briefly turned the night sky in China into day.
Interestingly, a similar ball of fire was seen falling from the sky on the same night in the Gansu province – almost 1,000 miles away from Beijing.
The meteor-like object apparently travelled all the way from Gansu to the Chinese capital before it broke up and vanished in the night sky.
While some people said it was a celestial object that came from space, others speculated it could be part of the debris that fell from the International Space Station.
A similar fireball thought to have been a part of space debris was spotted falling over California a few weeks ago.
Experts claimed the dazzling object was a chunk of a Chinese spacecraft.
It left many people concerned in Southern California as they didn’t know what they were witnessing, sparking UFO conspiracy theories.
The strange sight was visible from the Sacramento area down to San Diego.
A total of 81 people reported seeing the event, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS).
Astrophysicist and satellite expert Jonathan McDowell soon tweeted that the sighting was a falling chunk of the rocket.
Specifically, the orbital module of China’s Shenzhou 15 craft.
“This was the reentry of the Shenzhou 15 orbital module, over S California circa 0140 PDT Apr 2,” McDowell wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
No one was hurt but the event led to increased discussion about space debris and space launch safety.
That rocket was launched into space by China in November 2022.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vaporise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vaporise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However, rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vaporising)
English (US)