Watch an enormous meteor light up the skies of Sardinia
For one brilliant moment, it literally lit the night sky.
Footage captured from a dashcam shows a huge flare illuminating the sky.
According to NASA, 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles hit earth every single year. And roughly once a year Earth's atmosphere is hit by a car-sized meteor that creates an "impressive fireball", but burns up before hitting earth.
It's rare to catch that moment on camera.
But at 20:39 UTC, on the 16th of August in Sardinia, a driver (going by 'Claudio P') managed to capture the precise moment a meteor burned up in Earth's atmosphere. It's spectacular.
WOW!!! Did you see this?? Enormous #meteor falling in the skies over #Torregrande, #Sardinia, Italy late yesterday evening 16th of August! Video by ClaudiuPorcu via Astro Unisiena #severeweather #photography pic.twitter.com/V4QWwK6X1y
— WEATHER/ METEO WORLD (@StormchaserUKEU) August 17, 2019
A few other cameras caught footage of the meteor.
Gracias a @RedSpmn por su ayuda para darle forma a nuestra estación de vídeo detección de bólidos, a Albert por el aviso, y a todos los que forman parte del grupo de bólidos de @IbizaAstronomia AAE, porque el proyecto ya es una realidad y está dando sus frutos. #bólido #meteoro pic.twitter.com/AXRkV4zewx
— AAE (@IbizaAstronomia) August 17, 2019
To date the American Meteor Society has logged 93 eye-witness reports of the fireball, from France, Italy and even as far as Tunisia in Africa.
