What’s this streaking across our night sky?
THIS was the incredible moment when a fireball stunningly appeared across the Derbyshire sky.
The picture was taken by Rob Payne outside his home in Park Street, Heanor, on Sunday between 8pm and 10pm. In a timelapse image, it shows a meteor in the night sky – resembling a small white line – and alongside it various star trails which it created as a result.
The UK Meteor Network received 120 reports of sightings from London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Bath, Liverpool and Devon and Cornwall. Some watchers even reported hearing a sonic boom as the meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Mr Payne, 30, who is a single dad, said he lodged his phone on his window so it could capture the special sight.
He said: “I love the picture - it’s the first time I’ve ever caught streaks in the sky. It’s a timelapse picture which started at 8pm and carried on taking pictures until 10.30pm so that’s why you see the rounded star trails which show the direction the stars have moved during that time.
“In the picture you can see a bright and white little line and I think that is the fireball that people are on about. I’ve never seen anything like this in my pictures before. I hope the picture creates a lot of interest.”
The fireball was likely to have been a small piece of an asteroid entering the Earth’s atmosphere, scientists have said.
Scientists from the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFall), which is led by the Natural History Museum, said the meteor is set to break the world record as the most-reported ever – with more than 700 reports on International Meteor Organisation’s website so far.
Across the UK, many video doorbell and security cameras captured the astronomical event.
“The video recordings tell us its speed was about 30,000 miles per hour, which is too fast for it to be human-made ‘space junk’, so it’s not an old rocket or satellite,” said UKFall’s Dr Ashley King.
“The videos also allowed us to reconstruct its original orbit around the sun. In this case, the orbit was like an asteroid’s.
“This particular piece of asteroid spent most of its orbit between Mars and Jupiter, though sometimes got closer to the Sun than Earth is.”
UKFall said though the meteor broke up in the atmosphere it is likely “a few fragments” reached the ground. Dr Katherine Joy of the University of Manchester said: “If you do find a meteorite on the ground, ideally photograph it in place, note the location using your phone GPS, don’t touch it with a magnet, and, if you can, avoid touching it with your hands.”