Stellar fireball crosses the Italian skies

Much more than a shooting star. A meteor with its long bright trail was spotted in the skies of central-northern Italy yesterday evening. Here's what it was

RIMINI – It crossed the skies of central northern Italy yesterday evening, Tuesday 4 June, around 9.30pm to disappear after a handful of seconds. The lucky ones who noticed it wondered what it could be, since it was immediately clear that it was not a “simple” comet, but something brighter. In fact, it was a greenish yellow fireball sighted in various locations, from Romagna to Frosinone, from Milan to Perugia. The meteocam of the Nastro Verde Observatory in Sorrento managed to record it.

(The star fireball crosses the screen at the top left)

WHAT WAS IT?

The term bolide (from the Greek βολις, bolis, projectile) commonly indicates a meteor of high brightness, of negative magnitude. It is a current but not scientific term, as astronomers do not distinguish meteors based on brightness. So the bright trail was most likely caused by the passage of a meteorite relatively close to our planet. The fiery object (called a fireball) illuminated the skies with its large fiery tail for several seconds, from 2 to 4, and then disintegrated completely upon contact with the atmosphere.

The bolide is therefore a rocky fragment of metal whose dimensions can vary and reach an extension of 100m in diameter: when these fragments collide with the atmosphere, they shatter and become visible as large streaks of light which are called meteors or fireballs and are capable of creating an extraordinary streak of light.