A “fireball” illuminates the sky in Mexico City, sparking awe and many memes
Mexico City (AP) – A bright object, originally a meteorite, illuminates the sky over the Mexican capital, stretching plains, volcanoes and small towns at about 3:00 a.m. Wednesday.
Videos of shooting in Latin American countries, videos of shooting radiating under a light from a Mexican city have brought many people to awe — and soon became the fuel for memes circulating on social media.
“No, the meteorite that exploded last night was not an excuse to talk to your ex,” someone wrote on X, walking through the meteorite shower among a group of dinosaurs.
Soon, photos of obvious shooting stars edited with cartoon characters and political jokes flooded the internet.
But scientists across Mexico soon noticed that the object spinning in the sky was not a meteorite. That’s a bolide.
Bolides defined by NASA as Fireballs are “extremely bright shooting stars that are enough to see in large areas.”
It can also be described as a meteor or fragment of a meteor, said Mario Rodríguez, a space scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Like the bolides under the Mexican sky earlier Wednesday, they landed on Earth.
“Due to the huge pressure on objects, they start to flash with their extended tails,” Rodríguez said. He said that unlike meteorites that affect the Earth, the steel in the atmosphere would collapse.
He said the special meteor, which is about five feet long, does not have any threat to the public.
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