Mysterious blue meteor lights up skies in Spain, Portugal; watch video here | Lifestyle

The skies in Spain and Portugal momentarily turned bright blue as a massive fireball zipped through the atmosphere on Saturday evening. The videos of the fireball, captured by the people across the two countries, are going viral on social media.

The European Space Agency (ESA) described the object as a “stunning meteor” speeding over the skies of the western Spanish city of Caceres. But the space agency later said it considered the object to be a “small piece of a comet” and not a meteor, estimating its speed over the skies to be about 45 km (28 miles) per second before burning up over the Atlantic.

One of the social media users, Collin Rugg, shared a video on his X (formerly known as Twitter), the caption of the post reads, “JUST IN: Meteor spotted in the skies over Spain and Portugal.”

“This is insane,” Rugg further wrote.

He also wrote that “early reports claim that the blue flash could be seen darting through the night sky for hundreds of kilometers., At the moment, it has not been confirmed if it hit the Earth’s surface however some reports say it may have fallen near the town of Castro Daire.”

“Other reports say it was closer to Pinheiro,” Rugg added.

The bright blue light in the sky that could be seen in the pictures and videos was described by many observers as a meteor. Locals residents of Portugal and Spain shared the videos online, and the videos went viral in no time. The viral video received a wide range of responses from online users. Some people were simply surprised with the spectacle and many others expressed their absolute amazement.

In response to Rugg’s video, a user commented, “So friggin cool! Hope nobody got hurt.” Many people enjoyed this once-in-a-lifetime moment which was absolutely breathtaking.

Netizens react to the video

Social media users were bewildered with the sight, some could be seen admiring the brightness, comparing it to magnesium. While many others contemplated the frequency of such events especially when coinciding with other celestial phenomena like aurora borealis and solar eclipses.

One of the users wrote, “This has got to be the craziest meteor footage I’ve ever seen. I bet seeing it in person was mind blowing.”

Another user wrote, “Mesmerizing… in fact, so mesmerizing that people forget they are even recording lol.”

One of the users explained that the different colours happen when different elements burn up. Here the colour was likely Magnesium. Violet (calcium) Red (atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen) Orange-yellow (sodium) Yellow (iron) Blue-green (magnesium).”

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According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), when meteoroids enter the atmosphere of Earth at high speed they start burning up fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. The meteoroids vary in size from minuscule dust particles to compact asteroids that traverse through space.

First Published: May 20 2024 | 3:01 PM IS