Some described it as a blue and green flash in the
night sky, and some just thought it’s a UFO but it was a massively bright
meteor that passed over the UK in the initial hours of Thursday. It has also
set a new record as the biggest meteor ever spotted by the UK Meteor
Observation Network (UKMON). Named the St Patrick's Day Meteor, it was first seen
by UKMON at 3.16am on March 17 - St Patrick's Day in the UK and several other
parts of the world - and briefly overloaded the station's camera with light
because of its extraordinary brightness.
Although we're not sure precisely how big the
space rock is or where it landed, but UKMON said that "initial calculations"
recommended its brightness was around -7 on the magnitude scale, which lies
somewhere among a full moon and a crescent moon on the astronomical magnitude scale. Approximately one in 1,200 witnessed meteors seem brighter than -5 mag
(the Sun is -26 mag) according to the International Meteor Organization.
— Paul Gilbert (@PaulGilbertDj) 17 March 2016
As Richard Kacerek, co-founder of UKMON, confirmed
that the meteor was the major one ever witnessed by the UKMON.
Until now, the biggest meteor-fuelled fireball witnessed
in the blues of the UK is believed to be one spotted passing overhead in 2014,
which was also caught on the network managed by UKMON.
