A large meteor lit up the skies of Portugal and Spain this Saturday, causing admiration among thousands of people who witnessed the phenomenon.
The flash, described as a “ball of fire” with greenish and bluish tones, was seen at around 11:50 p.m. (local time) and could be seen across much of the Portuguese mainland.
Several videos and reports on social media captured the astronomical event, which is still unofficially explained. The meteor was seen flying across the sky at a high speed and leaving a bright trail behind it. The space object would have fallen in Portugal’s Castro Daire neighborhood in the Viseu district.
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Among the witnesses to the phenomenon is international correspondent and scientist Fabiano de Abreu, director of the Paivense newspaper.
“I was talking to my stepson about the force needed to move an object in space using Newton’s law and suddenly we saw an intense greenish flash,” reported Abreu. “And it fell an hour from where we are,” added the scientist.
Although the origin and composition of the meteor have not yet been made public by the authorities, experts surmise that it may have broken off from an asteroid or comet that passed near Earth. Meteor strikes are a relatively common phenomenon, but the magnitude and intensity of Saturday’s flash caught the attention of observers and scientists.
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