China: Giant mysterious fireball lights up sky in north-western Qinghai province

The Chinese sky was lit up with a mysterious fireball on Wednesday that has left the scientific community all over the world in splits. The incident is said to have occurred on December 23 in north-western Qinghai province. The footage of the incident is now going viral on social media platforms, with some calling the ball of fire a huge meteor. According to Daily Mail, Chinese media is suspecting it to be a bolide, an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.

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The giant fireball crashed in the Nangqian county on Wednesday morning, causing zero casualties. According to the report, local residents heard loud bangs after the object passed over the sky lighting up the entire town. In one of the videos shared online by journalist Mete Sohtaoğlu, the sky over Nangqian county can be seen lit up by the giant fireball before it vanishes behind a mountain.

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The footage shared by Mete Sohtaoglu has garnered more than 3,500 views and hundreds of likes since being shared on December 23. Several netizens jokingly referred to the giant fireball as an alien activity, while some said "2020 isn't over yet".

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Fireball lights up Japanese sky

Earlier, a dazzling ‘fireball’ was seen lighting up in the sky across the large areas of western Japan causing a stir on social media. While some onlookers said it made a “rumbling noise” another saying the “sky went totally bright”. As per the Kyodo News report, the director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium in Hyogo Prefecture where the fireball was seen, said shooting stars brighter than Venus are often known as bolides but acknowledged that it was ‘rare’ for them to be as bright as it was spotted on November 29. 

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