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Meteorite burns up over southern Germany – like a “green shooting star”
A meteorite in space. A similar astronomical phenomenon was seen in parts of Bavaria and the Czech Republic late Monday evening
© Imaginechina-Tuchong / Imago Images
A meteorite raced spectacularly across the Franconian night sky on Monday evening and was at times brighter than a full moon. The phenomenon was even captured on video.
There was a lot of excitement on social media late Monday evening, in the truest sense of the word. For example, people reported on Twitter about a huge bright flash in the sky. The scenery was surreal and mesmerizing. Someone wrote of a “glowing green ball” and wondered: Was that a Meteorite?
According to initial estimates, what could be observed in the sky in southern Germany – especially over Franconia, but also in the direction of Stuttgart – was actually a meteorite.
In the Czech Republic, the bright spot, which fell rapidly towards the surface of the earth, was also clearly visible, as reported by the media. The Hydrometereological Institute in the Czech capital, Prague, posted a video on Twitter showing a bright spot racing across the night sky over Pilsen. A webcam recorded the scene above the city in western Czech Republic, about 70 kilometers from the German border.
Media reports are fairly certain that a meteorite could be seen in the night sky on Monday evening. It is therefore completely unclear whether the object burned up completely, or whether rocks fell to the ground somewhere, which is extremely rare and is said to only happen about seven times a year on average worldwide. However, the Czech researchers at least do not rule out the possibility that parts of the cosmic rocks hit the earth. The glow was brighter than a full moon, they wrote on Twitter for the video sequence.
Meteorite was filmed on Monday at 10:45 p.m. over Pilsen in the Czech Republic
The webcam film was recorded at 10.45 p.m. over Pilsen. According to media reports, the bright point, which at times lit up the entire sky, should have been seen a few minutes earlier in places that are a little further away.
In any case, on Twitter there was great enthusiasm about the sky spectacle. The moment looked magical, according to the comments. One user described it as “a green shooting star” falling from the sky.
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Sources: Twitter“Franconian day“, “Nordbayern.de“, “Augsburg General“