A bright fireball was seen over much of southeast France and northern Italy at about 6.20 pm local time on Wednesday 17 February 2015. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the
planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in
the atmosphere, but can be the result of man-made space-junk burning up
on re-entry.
Fireball seen over northern Italy on Wednesday 17 February 2016. You Reporter.
Objects of this size probably enter the Earth's atmosphere several times
a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely
to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they
produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. It is possible, though
unlikely, that this object will have produced meteorites that reached
the surface (an object visible in the sky is a meteor, a rock that falls
from the sky and can be physically held and examined is a meteorite),
though most meteorites come from larger objects that penetrate further
into the atmosphere before exploding, and therefore have a better chance
of producing fragments that reach the surface.
Vapor trail left by the 17 February 2015 fireball meteor. You Reporter.
See also...
Meteorite unlikely to have killed man in Tamil Nadu. Indian newspaper The Hindu carried a report
on Sunday 7 February 2016 in which the death of a man and injury of
three other people as well as causing damage to several nearby buildings
at the campus of a college in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, were described as...
Bright fireball over Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Many people have reported seeing a bright fireball over parts of
southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba at about 8.40 pm local tine on Sunday
8 November 2015. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star)...
Fireball over northern Europe. Eyewitnesses across much of northern Europe reported seeing a bright
fireball in the sky moving southwest to northeast at about 6.05 pm GMT
on Saturday 31 October 2015. The event was seen from the Netherlands,
Germany, Denmark, southern...
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