A fireball originating from space, known as the "bolide" meteor, was spotted streaking over UK's West Country, Wales and the West Midlands in the early hours of Monday morning, UK MailOnline reported. The fiery rock did not cause any damage.
The discovery was made by cameras at the Norman Lockyer Observatory in Sidmouth, Devon at 03:04 BST, which is a huge achievement since these sort of occurrences are extremely rare in the UK. It is by far the largest fireball ever spotted by the observatory, Dave Jones of the UK Meteor Observation Network (UKMON) said.
After eyewitnesses reported that a massive shooting star, green-colored and casting shadows due to its sheer brightness, had been spotted streaking across the sky in the early hours of Monday, astronomers at the Norman Lockyer Observatory in Sidmouth rewound the observatory's two fixed cameras to check whether it had been caught on camera.
They were thrilled to find a perfect clip of a flaming meteor racing across the sky at 3:04am before disappearing behind clouds. "We have two cameras that watch for meteors during darkness, so upon hearing the news I logged in to check our data and see if we had captured anything," said Jones. "Fortunately the meteor passed in front of both of our cameras so we ended up with two videos of the same event. Due to cloud and raindrops on the camera lenses the image was not as clear as we would like, however the sheer size and brightness of this object burning up in our atmosphere almost overwhelmed our cameras as it was so bright."
Monday's meteor event has been the largest to be caught on camera by an amateur team since the monitoring equipment was rigged up a year ago. The footage is currently being studied to get a better idea of its trajectory.
"Built in 1912 and situated 15 miles south of Exeter, the Norman Lockyer Observatory is used by students, researchers and amateur astronomers," according to UK MailOnline. "Thanks to its coastal location and the lack of light pollution, it is renowned as one of the best places in the UK for spectral analysis."
