Meteor spotted blazing through UK's Hampshire, lands in sea near South of France

Our planet has witnessed uncountable meteor and asteroid encounters, still, each new entry into the earth's atmosphere ensues the same enthusiasm in the astro geeks. On Sunday, France encountered the passage of a meteor that lit up the night sky over Arzal.

Meteor spotted in France and UK

According to a report by BBC, the meteor was spotted on September 6 at around 2:45 am (IST) as it blazed through the night sky over the English Channel islands of Jersey and Guernsey. According to the UK Fireball Alliance's Jim Rowe, the size of the meteor was similar to that of a handful of stones, reported BBC. Rowe explained that the meteor was probably a residual of an asteroid or comet which exploded under the extreme pressure of the atmosphere. He also suspected its speed to be extremely high and the angle, shallow. 

As per Hampshire news reports, it was predicted that the bright object, seen from many parts including UK's Hampshire, must have crashed somewhere in the sea near the coastal areas of France. However, the landing site is unclear, meteor tracking organisations, the UK Meteor Network and SCAMP, said that early indications point that it dived into the south coast of France. 

How do meteors glow?

National Geographic explains that meteors are formed when meteorite burns up while entering the Earth's atmosphere, leaving a trail of light behind. The atmosphere's heat makes the gases and parts of ice glow in different colours. The colours left behind by the meteors also depend on their chemical composition as one with higher calcium content may glow purple and another with higher iron content might glow yellow.

For France, this has been the second incident of a meteor strike with the last being in March that fell near Aiguillon. The impact had prompted a search by the authorities but it wasn't traced due to its minuscule size. As per sources, the rock weighed 150gm, resembling the size of an apricot. Interestingly, the search was done extensively even on social media as posters were circulated for the whereabouts of the alien object. 

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