Recently, a nighttime flash over Latvia was caused by a fireball - a rare bright meteor for the region. Astronomers suggest that small fragments may have reached the ground near Riga, but the exact trajectory is still being established.
On Wednesday evening, the sky over Latvia was illuminated by a bright flash - a fireball, or a very bright meteor, entered the Earth's atmosphere. According to the Latvian Astronomical Society, the observed phenomenon is rare for Latvia, reports LSM+.
"What we observed is called a fireball. In other words, a very bright meteor that outshines everything else that was glowing in the sky at that moment. Essentially, it is a stone or stone-metallic body that entered the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and burned up," explained the project manager of the Latvian Astronomical Society, Mārtiņš Gills.
According to him, the object was presumably not very large, but the possibility of fragments falling cannot be completely ruled out. "Most likely, the body was small, but after it burned up, it is possible that something did fall to the ground," noted Gills.
To determine the possible location of the meteorite's fall, scientists need to reconstruct the exact trajectory of the fireball's flight. "From several observation points, we need to determine the flight trajectory and then assess the free fall - where the meteorite or several meteorites could have fallen if it broke into fragments.
The initial assessment is as follows: it happened not too far from Riga, a little south and southeast, but there are no exact calculations yet. This is very approximate," said the representative of the astronomical society.
Bright meteors, or fireballs, are observed several times a year. Sometimes they can appear during the day, but then they remain almost unnoticed by observers. "It should be noted that the last time a meteorite was actually found in Latvia was more than 130 years ago," added Gills.
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