Celestial Surprise! Giant Fireball From Space Crash-Lands In China

Manika Parasher
Manika Parasher
Updated on Dec 24, 2020, 19:05 IST- 2 min read -733 Shares
Indiatimes

‘Tis the year to be jolly, fa la la la la la la. 

Nope. Not really. It has been a very hard year, for almost everyone. However, as if to make up for all the crappy things that have happened, we have had some very interesting celestial events. 

From meteor showers to eclipses, and then the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

While this one might not exactly top the list, stuff falling from outer space isn’t really mundane. 

On December 23, at about 7:00 am, a giant fireball was seen streaking across the sky and plummeting towards earth; it reportedly landed in China. It obviously sparked the interest of locals who filmed the incident. 

Bolide Daily Mail

Experts believe that the object was a bolide that dropped several fragments of meteorites in the area, as reported by UNILAD. Chinese social media was also flooded with comments about loud bangs being heard for the duration of the event. 

A bolide is an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere. Wikipedia defines it as a fireball about as bright as the full moon, and it is generally considered a synonym for a fireball.

China Earthquake Networks Center said that the suspected bolide landed near the border between Nangqian County and Yusu County, and that it had recorded the incident. Daily Mail quoted, local witness Dan Ba as saying, “It started very small, but three minutes later it became very big and bright.” Ba was taking his child to school when he witnessed the event. 

The suspected bolide crash while loud and startling, did not injure anyone.

Looks like the skies are throwing interesting puzzles for us to decode.