A fireball seen shooting through the skies above parts of the UK was a meteor, experts have said. The UK Meteor Network said it had received almost 800 reports after the blazing orb was spotted in the night sky over Northern Ireland and Scotland on Wednesday.
Scientists used video footage taken from members of the public and analysed data to work out whether the “brilliant fireball” was debris or matter from outer space. They said the object, which lasted more than 20 seconds, was “definitely a meteor”, adding “we are now 100% confident this was a small part of an asteroid”.
The network said the end of the meteor’s journey was not observed on camera, but that it ended over the North Atlantic Ocean, some 50-100 km west of the Isle of Islay, the southern-most island of the Inner Hebrides.
