Meteor spotted blazing through UK's Hampshire, lands in sea near South of France

Our planet has witnessed uncountable meteor and asteroid encounters, still, each new entry into earth's atmosphere ensues same enthusiasm in astro geeks. On Sunday, France encountered pass of a meteor that lit up night sky over Arzal.

Meteor spotted in France and UK

According to a report by BBC, meteor was spotted on September 6 at around 2:45 am (IST) as it blazed through night sky over English Channel islands of Jersey and Guernsey. According to UK Fireball Alliance's Jim Rowe, size of meteor was similar to that of a handful of stones, reported BBC. Rowe explained that meteor was probably a residual of an asteroid or comet which exploded under extreme pressure of atmosphere. He also suspected its speed to be extremely high and  angle, shallow. 

As per Hampshire news reports, it was predicted that bright object, seen from many parts including UK's Hampshire, must have crashed somewhere in sea near coastal areas of France. However, landing site is unclear, meteor tracking organisations, UK Meteor Network and SCAMP, said that early indications point that it dived into south coast of France. 

How do meteors glow?

National Geographic explains that meteors are formed when meteorite burns up while entering Earth's atmosphere, leaving a trail of light behind. atmosphere's heat makes gases and parts of ice glow in different colours. colours left behind by meteors also depend on ir chemical composition as one with higher calcium content may glow purple and ar with higher iron content might glow yellow.

For France, this has been second incident of a meteor strike with last being in March that fell near Aiguillon. impact had prompted a search by authorities but it wasn't traced due to its minuscule size. As per sources, rock weighed 150gm, resembling size of an apricot. Interestingly, search was done extensively even on social media as posters were circulated for whereabouts of alien object. 

(Im Credit: Unsplash)