The UK Meteor Network confirmed it had received more than 200 reports of “a fireball sighted” at 9pm on Wednesday, with most sightings coming from Scotland and Northern Ireland. The celestial phenomenon was captured by cameras, showing a brightly lit object flying at a downward angle followed by a huge tail. “I thought I just saw a shooting star in Motherwell or is something falling in the sky?” Twitter user Rhiannon Hayes said in a video that is now going viral. Several comments followed the video, sharing a video of the same moment in different locations. “Hey Barra, just spotted this. At first I thought it was a firework, no noise and it didn’t explode, I quickly pulled out my phone, are we supposed to find meteors or something?’ said another. CCTV footage in Linlithgow, West Lothian, captured the fireball shooting into the sky in the distance. Some users who watched the astronomical observation said they had never seen anything like it before. “Yup, spotted in Glasgow city center about 30 minutes ago – much bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before,” said one user. Another said: “Just saw this in Glasgow around 10pm!! I’ve never seen anything like it before!” “My 2 daughters and I saw the meteor, it was incredible, but one of my younger daughters was terrified,” said another. The UK Meteor Network, a group with a network of 170 detection cameras recording meteors and fireballs over the UK, said it was “conducting an investigation to ascertain whether the object was — a meteorite or space debris”. Just a month ago, officials in Utah, USA, said a loud explosion followed by a rumbling sound of several seconds was heard across the region, likely caused by a meteorite impact.
