A suspected meteorite explosion has been recorded by citizens of the northern Russian city of Murmansk.
Multiple drivers with dashcams out on the streets of the
300,000-people city at 2.10am on Saturday noticed a bright blue
trail speed across the night sky, then explode while still in the
air.
Most observers identified the object as a meteorite, though
officials have neither confirmed it nor said where the fragments
are likely to have landed. Others speculated that the object may
have been space debris, re-entering the atmosphere.
Emergency services say there were no injuries as a result of the
astral event.
While tens of tons of cosmic dust reaches the Earth’s atmosphere
each day, the number of meteorites that reach the surface may be
about 500 a year, though most are small, and scientists do not
have a precise calculation.
The most spectacular meteorite of recent years was over the Urals
city of Chelyabinsk last year, when an astral body exploded in
the sky with the strength of 40 Hiroshima bombs, temporarily
blinding and deafening hundreds of people below.