Video: Meteor fireball that headed over Lancashire

Astronomers in Ireland have caught the moment a meteorite turned into a fireball as powerful as a nuclear explosion just 21 miles above the Earth.
The meteor fireballThe meteor fireball
The meteor fireball

The blast was so visible the Irish Coast Guard contacted Astronomy Ireland as they were receiving so many reports of possible distress flares. In Burnley, social media was buzzing with reports of the phenomenon in Sunday’s night sky.

Footage of the “car-sized” meteorite burning up in the atmosphere was so good as it was destroyed much lower than the usual 50 to 70 miles up.

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Experts believe it broke off an asteroid in orbit between Mars and Jupiter and headed towards earth at 100,000mph.

The meteor fireballThe meteor fireball
The meteor fireball

Fragments of the rock which made it to Earth are worth 10 times the price of gold.

The video was recorded by the United Kingdom Meteor Observing Network at Portadown on Sunday, around 10.10pm.

David Moore from Astronomy Ireland said: “This event was so bright that a piece or pieces may have survived the re-entry and landed as extremely rare and valuable meteorites.”

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Amateur enthusiasts hoping for a quick buck by finding a piece may be out of luck though as they suspect from the trajectory it travelled any pieces would now be at the bottom of the Irish sea.

The clip, uploaded to YouTube by the UK Meteor Observation Network, shows the massive dash of light fly across the sky at Portadown and Lurgan.