Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a meteorite passes over a Brazilian city and shines brighter than the moon.
The phenomenon was filmed by local resident Edson Carlos de Almeida in the municipality of Vacaria in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul at around 1am on October 1.
Almeida said: “What caught our attention was the extremely loud noise that caused the houses to shake.”
Almeida’s son Matheus Zambrzycki de Almeida said that he was driving along Joao Teodoro Duarte Street when he saw the bright fireball in the sky.
He said: “For a moment, I thought it had turned to daytime. I first thought it was a lightning storm, I had no idea it was a meteor.”
Professor Carlos Fernando Jung said: “Now we are going to find out where the fragments landed in the area. It is believed that this meteor’s mass weighed many tonnes when it entered the atmosphere. It then broke up into several pieces.”
The Heller & Jung Space Observatory filmed the meteor’s descent, adding that it began over the skies of Caxias do Sul in the mountain range of Rio Grande do Sul.
Professor Jung said: “For six seconds, the meteor shone brightly and easily overpowered the luminosity of the full moon until it disintegrated above 22 kilometres above the city of Vacaria.”
He added: “Due to the shockwaves it produced, there was a real sensation of an explosion. When this happens, the meteor possibly left behind fragments on the ground.”
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