Bright objects falling from space lit up the sky in the Mexican capital around 3am on Wednesday, spreading over plains, volcanoes, and small towns.
Videos of a fireball that streaked across a Latin American country and exploded into a burst of light in Mexico City captured the attention of many.
“No, the meteorite that exploded last night is not a reason to reach out to your ex,” someone tweeted. Meteor shower.
Soon, the internet was filled with edited images of fireballs featuring cartoon characters and political jokes.
Mexican scientists quickly realized that the object streaking across the sky was not a meteorite but a bolido. This was Bolido.
Bolido, as defined by NASA, is “a very bright meteor that is spectacular enough to be seen over a large area.”
Mario Rodriguez, a space science researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, explained that it could be classified as a meteor or a fragment of one.
Bolido, resembling a shooting star, creates a fire as it descends through the Mexican skies in the early hours of Wednesday.
“Due to the high pressure on the object, they begin to flare up with their trailing tails and emit light,” Rodriguez stated, part of a team of scientists analyzing the video that amazed many Mexicans. He added that unlike meteorites impacting the Earth, bolidos disintegrate in the atmosphere.
According to him, this particular meteor was around five feet long and posed no danger to the public.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
