Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@IbizaAstronomia
This is the moment a huge fireball zooms across the night sky above the tourist island of Ibiza and appears to ‘explode’ on the horizon next to the light of the full moon.
The incident was captured by the Puig des Molins Observatory in Ibiza located in the eastern Spanish region of the Balearic Islands and shows the moment the meteor ‘explodes’ in the night sky next to the shine of the full moon.
According to Josep Maria Trigo of the Institute of Space Sciences, the object was a ‘bolide’, an extremely bright meteor that usually explodes in the atmosphere.
Pictures Credit: CEN/@IbizaAstronomia
It was considered one of the brightest explosions detected in Spain in recent years and as such can be classified as a ‘superbolide’, according to Trigo.
The superbolide appeared at around 10.36pm just east of Ibiza and it is believed to have disintegrated around 400 kilometres (249 miles) away, somewhere between the neighbouring island of Majorca and the Italian island of Sardinia, according to Trigo.
The meteor is also believed to have completely disintegrated about 50 kilometres (31 miles) above the ocean surface.
In the footage released on Twitter, the superbolide is seen approaching the Earth’s surface at great speed before ‘flashing’ several times as the subsequent explosion appears to intensify.
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