The American Meteor Society has recorded more than 860 reports and many impressive videos,
Computer trajectory modeling showsthat the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere north of Lough Ryan (a sea loch about two hours' drive southwest of Glasgow) and its flight ended north of Islay (in northern Great Britain). The fireball in the sky shows that this meteor is larger than most of its kind that Earth encounters on a daily basis. Most meteors are the size of tiny pebbles. The meteor, about the size of a small ball, can briefly emit light equivalent to the full Moon.
Amateur photographs of a meteorite. Photo: Paul M. (right) and Daniel F. (left)
The reason for this is the extreme speed, withwhich these objects collide with the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors travel at over 10 km/s, much faster than any projectile fired from a firearm.
Regardless of the origin of the fireball,the event was harmless. It happened at an altitude of tens of kilometers in the atmosphere. No astronomical society has yet reported whether it has produced meteorites, which happens on rare occasions when a space rock naturally breaks up in the atmosphere and its pieces fall to earth.
Areas from which meteorite sightings were reported. Image: AMS
A lot of amazing observations of this bright phenomenon were published by users on social networks.
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