Dozens of people saw it in Granada, though it was visible in the rest of Spain and Portugal, crossing the sky with a burst of light that literally turned night into day.
Many thought that it was a meteorite but in reality it was a fireball that streaked across the heavens not much after midnight (00.46h) Sunday morning.
People witnessed it right across the Iberian Peninsular; in Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, and even as far north as Galicia and the north of neighbouring Portugal.
According to an astrophysicist expert, the rock entered the atmosphere 122 kilometres up, more or less over Don Benitos (Badajoz) heading north west and emitted a series of explosions as it struggled with the Earth’s atmosphere, breaking into smaller pieces.
It’s trajectory finished 54 kilometres up over Atlantic Ocean and all of its debris burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere. The intensity of the burst of light could be seen 800 kilometres away.
Ayer en varios puntos de España y Portugal se iluminó el cielo por unos segundos. Gran bólido avistado
Nosotros lo vimos justo bajando de las fiestas de Rivas en Madrid.Videos desde Granada y Portugal#meteorito #MeteoritoDeMadrid pic.twitter.com/AJOXWE6uLc
— sonfotografia (@sonfotografia) May 19, 2024
(News/Noticias: Granada, Andalucia)
Paul: As we both know, a meteorite is what is left, as you say, when a fragments reach the ground; you find a piece; you have found a meteorite.
As it was reported as having all burnt up (notwithstanding if small fragments did reach the seafloor of the Atlantic Ocean) until somebody finds one, there were no meteorites. I didn’t say that it was not a meteor, had I done so, you could have had a field day.
A fireball is an unusually bright meteor that reaches a visual magnitude of -3 or brighter when seen at the observer’s zeniths, which was the case of this meteor. 😉
You say ‘many thought it was a meteorite but in reality it was a fireball,.
What do you think a ‘fireball’ is?
A meteorite is what is left after a meteor hits the earth. You say that all burned up so no meteorite resulted but it was a large meteor burning up that was seen.