Speculation of another meteor after loud boom
AHUGE, long-lasting bang that shook windows across Dorset, Somerset and Devon on Saturday afternoon seems to have been a sonic boom, and now speculation is growing that it could have been another meteor exploding in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The loud boom was heard over the south coast in Devon and Dorset and as far inland as the middle of Somerset, at just before 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
It appears increasingly likely that it was caused by a meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere and streaking across Wales, the West Country and the English Channel in a matter of seconds.
Soon after the boom, theories initially focused on either an explosion on the ground, or out at sea, or the sonic boom of a jet breaking the sound barrier over the coast.
All of those have been ruled out or denied by the authorities, and now more theories are emerging about what the sound could have been.
After the initial witness accounts from Somerset, Dorset and Devon of a long, thunderous boom sound, people in Wales and then the Channel Islands reported actually seeing a streak of bright white light in the sky - and together scientists are now speculating the three things are linked, and a meteor was responsible.
The sound was described in Portland, Dorset, as a low boom that lasted for ten seconds, while people in Somerset and inland Dorset said it lasted much longer.
Juliana Hodge of Hackney Hill in Dorset said: “What’s weird is my Peking ducks were spooked by something just before it happened.
“As if they felt something - it made them leap up in the air spontaneously, at the same time, then my parents and
I heard the booming noise, followed by about 30-40 seconds of thunder but it just didn’t end. Funny that animals can sense things before the sound reaches us,” she added.
Janet Stone was 30 miles away inland in Westland Road, Yeovil when she heard it. “I heard it and the windows and front door rattled for some 10 seconds at least,” she said.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “We have had reports of a loud bang. But we are putting it down to a sonic boom.”
But the RAF and the Ministry of Defence have ruled out a sonic boom from one of their planes.
An MoD spokeswoman told The Mirror that the bang is not believed to be linked to any RAF activity.
Just a couple of weeks ago a meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere above west Wales and came down at a sharp angle before exploding high up in the sky above Cheltenham.
This happened at night, and caused a shooting star the likes of which people said they hadn’t seen before - a bright white and yellow scar across the sky that was seen as far away as Dorset and Yorkshire. It lasted a few seconds and there was a huge flash as the meteor broke up in the atmosphere.
Pieces of the space rock are still being found across Gloucestershire.
Astronomer and science journalist Will Gater has suggested a smudge over the Bristol Channel on a satellite image, a bright meteor or bolide filmed from Jersey, and a sighting in Wales all suggest a possible meteor.
And soon after he speculated dashcam footage from a car driving in Jersey emerged, showing a bright white streak across the sky over the English Channel.