Coastguards up and down the west coast of Scotland were inundated with calls after a fireball appeared to be falling into the sea. On Friday night, 40 calls were logged with the same message to the 999 service, saying that a plane appeared to have exploded and fallen into the sea.
Coastguards and lifeboats were scrambled and the emergency services prepared for a major catastrophe. However, no plane was reported lost and consultation with the airforce base at Kinloss led to the conclusion that a meteor shower had provided a magnificent lightshow.
Swarms of meteors, referred to as Kappa Cygnids, cross the Earth's orbit around the sun at this time of the year. When the meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere, they burn bright yellow or blue and move only slowly, at 15 miles per second.
The next major celestial event will be a lunar eclipse on September 7th.
That would be an amazing thing to see!
ReplyDeletePamela
Wow! That must of been really something to see!!!
ReplyDeleteThat would have been so awesome to see, but on the otherhand if I didn't know what it was I would have been a Chicken Little and thought the sky was falling Lol.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Angela
I used to watch meteor showers when I lived out of town, too much light pollution here in the city centre! I would have loved to have seen it. Jeannette xx
ReplyDeleteYes, we just had the Perseids, what a show! No wonder people always call them shooting stars - amazing, I love this universe!! CATHY
ReplyDeleteAnd they say nothing happens in the middle of no-where! Man you sure have put the Isle of Lewis on the global map. x
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