Explanation:
The brilliant fireball meteor captured in this snapshot
was a startling visitor to Tuesday
evening's twilight skies over the city of Groningen.
In fact, sightings of the
meteor, as bright
as the Full Moon, were widely reported
throughout the Netherlands and Germany
at approximately 17:00 UT.
Accompanied by sonic booms and rumbling sounds, the meteor was seen
to break up into bright fragments, eventually leaving a
persistent
smoke-like trail.
Even though there are bright
fireball meteors
in planet Earth's atmosphere every day,
sightings of them are relatively
rare because they more often occur over oceans and uninhabited areas.
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