A meteor exploded in the sky over Spain and Portugal on May 18 at 22:46 GMT, lighting up the surrounding area. The event was confirmed by the European Space Agency (ESA), which captured the moment of the meteor's eruption in the Spanish city of Cáceres with its cameras.
The meteorite was traveling at a speed of about 160,000 km/h. ESA added that the meteorite likely burned up in the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 kilometers above Earth.
ESA said on its X social page that its camera in Cáceres spotted this stunning meteorite last night, and the Planetary Defense Office is currently analyzing the object's size and trajectory to assess the likelihood of whether any material reached the Earth's surface.
Let's remind that an asteroid exploded in Berlin in January of this year. In addition, scientists discovered it a few hours before the explosion. Asteroids, entering the Earth's atmosphere, as a rule, burn up there as well. However, sometimes their fragments reach the Earth's surface. For example, in 2013, a 20-meter-wide asteroid exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in southeastern Russia, shattering windows in thousands of buildings.
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