A huge meteor was seen across most of Britain last night (Saturday 3rd March 2012) and sparked concerns that a plane had crashed…
We had a report last night saving a strange light had been seen over Stockport.
just seen what i first thought was a comet across the sky over stockport. i was just having a cig on the porch when i saw this circular object traveling at a amazing rate of knots from north to south. I live beneath the Manchester airport flight path but this was nothing like a plane, it was orange/red in colour and had a large tail with it. was very very peculiar and i am sure it was a comet but yet i cannot find anything that suggests it was. mental!!
Police forces say they have received a number of calls reporting what is believed to have been a meteor.
Reports of a “bright light” and an “orange glow” came in across the north of England and Scotland at about 21:40 GMT amid fears a plane had crashed.
The Met Office tweeted: “Hi All, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite.”
Durham Police said air traffic control had confirmed there had not been any incidents of aircraft in difficulties
What are meteors?
- Usually dust or sand grain-sized rocks travelling at hundreds of kilometres per second
- Burn up on entering atmosphere, creating bright streaks
- Seen “randomly” on most clear evenings
- “Meteor showers” seen several times per year
- Formed when Earth passes through comet debris
Source: Meteor witnessed across Britain BBC
Thanks to Sam for the report/comment on Orange balls of light seem over South London.
Whitley Bay Meteor as herein : MrAlan: Great to see some better resolution video. Great shot and editing for closer a slower observation. Thanks. I didn’t know we had a meteor until just now! Great. Would it have skipped right on out the atmosphere or landed. I bet if kept going, looked like that sought of trajectory. Wasn’t it kind of slow – even real-time – for a meteor, if I didn’t know better I’d think it was a low orbit or even sky vehicle of strange order. It was clear it was close and there seemed little degradation/ decline/ decay in its trajectory, size, brightness, or speed. In which case, if far away, it must have been a whopper.
I’d gone to the riverside at South Shields to see the laser artwork on the night before my birthday. My sister in law pointed out a bright light heading towards us from the direction of Whitley Bay. We thought it was a flare, but soon realised it wasn’t as it sailed over our heads. It felt so close that we could have lifted our hands and touched it.
Did anyone else see The low flash of light accros Manchester Last night.Poss after 9 before 10 on 8th May 2013,It was very fast very low and very bright.See planes regular but much higher consisting of a few flickering lights,this was completely different,I can’t have been the only observer