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Last night, a chunk of the comet flared up in the atmosphere, and blue meteors lit up the skies over Europe.
Videos and images on social media showed the bright blue flash of the fireball streaking across the sky over southern Spain and Portugal, stretching out into the Atlantic Ocean.
People have reported seeing shooting stars as far north as Brittany, France, and as far south as Andalusia, Spain. Initial analysis suggests that the star came from an icy comet, hence its striking light blue color.
“This object appears to have been a small piece of a comet,” the European Space Agency (ESA) wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“It is estimated that it flew at approximately 45 kilometers per second over Spain and Portugal.” [25 miles per second] Before burning up over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of about 60km [37 miles]. The chances of a meteorite being discovered are very low. ”
Scientists had no indication that the rocky debris was headed toward Earth until it was observed lighting up the atmosphere over Spain at around 10:45 p.m. local time.
Professor José María Madedo, an astronomer at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics, led the work from the ground and confirmed from several bolide detection cameras that the space rock had completed its journey across the ocean. and approved ESA’s planetary exploration assessment. The Pentagon said it originated from a comet.
It is unclear which comet this debris came from and how large it was, but it is possible that it originated from Halley’s Comet and formed part of the Eta Aquari meteor shower.
However, this has not yet been confirmed, and the fireball was moving more slowly than Aquarius events typically do. According to NASA, the Aquarius meteor shower will be active from mid-April to the end of May, reaching its peak in early May.
The blue hue of meteors in the sky may be caused by the interaction of icy comet material with charged particles from the Sun or Earth’s atmosphere.
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