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Hundreds spot 'spectacular' fireball across England

News imageUKMON A photo of a falling meteoriteUKMON
All recorded data is shared with the UK Fireball Alliance to calculate trajectory of possible meteorite falls over the UK

Hundreds of sightings of a "bright green" fireball have been reported across England and Wales.

The UK Network Fireball Alliance (UKFA) said the large fireball was observed over the UK at 00:39 BST on Thursday and some people heard a sonic boom.

There were posts of social media sightings in Stockport, Southampton, London, Wigan, Manchester, Birmingham, Devon, Cornwall, Plymouth and Somerset.

The UKFA is asking for images and any video footage to be reported to them.

It was also spotted in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Richard Kacerek, founder of UK Meteor Network (UKMON), said: "Last night at 00:39 UT 15 UKMON cameras picked up a very large meteor event that we call a fireball, [a] very bright meteor entering Earth's atmosphere over Somerset."

He added: "Visually it was quite spectacular, with a green colour [with the] different colours usually pointing to the composition of the meteoroid."

The UK Fireball Network caught this picture of the fireball over the Bristol Channel at 00:39 BST.

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Twitter user Wolfy said: "So I'm in Devon near Dorset and it went over us North towards Somerset and then I heard an explosion about a minute after.

"I have never seen anything that big in my life!

"It lit up the whole sky and then broke into smaller pieces but it was huge. Lit up the night sky blue then broke up into an orange colour", they added.

Twitter user Simon E, based in Somerset, said they saw a "streak of light in the sky and a loud boom over Bridgwater."

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Planetary scientist Ashley James King said 200 reports had been made of fireballs, adding reports are used to work out where the object came from and whether any meteorites had reached the ground.

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News imageUKMON Preliminary data map showing Somerset as the end pointUKMON
Preliminary data show Somerset as the end point but the meteorite could have landed in the Bristol Channel

Juliet Brando said they saw the fireball in Hastings and it "burned up bright green... It was like a silent, wrong-trajectory firework. Glorious to see."

Mr Kacerek said: "Preliminary analysis from UKMON data shows terminal altitude around 30km above the ground and velocity of 6.9km/s which is exciting."

He said it showed there was the potential for another fall but "we might need a scuba suite and snorkel as any meteorite most likely fell into the Bristol Channel".

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