Huge fireball ‘falls from the sky and crashes into a Chinese city’

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Huge fireball ‘falls from the sky and crashes into a Chinese province’, leaving locals dumbfounded

  • A giant fireball was flashed through the sky over Nangqian, China today
  • Footage shows the burning sphere exploding and plummeting in the county
  • Local media suggested the fast-moving object could be a very bright meteor
  • China’s earthquake authority said a suspected car hit Earth at 7:25 am

By Billie Thomson for Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A giant fireball has been seen flashing through the sky and crashing in a province in southern China.

Images taken by the bewildered locals show that an unknown object explodes in a burning sphere as it crashes towards Earth at high speed.

It’s not immediately clear what the fireball is, but local media suggests the possibility of a very bright meteor. No casualties have been reported.

The giant fireball was seen through the sky over Nangqian in China this morning

The giant fireball was seen through the sky over Nangqian in China this morning

Several clips on Chinese social media show the suspicious meteor lighting up the sky

Several clips on Chinese social media show the suspicious meteor lighting up the sky

Several clips on Chinese social media show the suspected meteor illuminating the sky as it enters Nangqian Province in Qinghai Province in northwestern China.

The incident is said to have occurred around 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Local residents reported hearing loud bangs.

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Twitter-like Weibo, captures the moment when the fireball floats through the darkness as seen by a passenger on a flight from Xi’an to Lhasa.

The incident is said to have taken place around 7 a.m. on Wednesday

Local residents reported hearing loud bangs

The incident is said to have taken place in northwest China around 7 a.m. on Wednesday

In another clip, the burning object is seen descending rapidly towards hills and fields.

In a third clip, the fireball gets brighter and bigger as it approaches the ground.

Dan Ba, a resident, said he witnessed the fireball as he took his child to school.

“It started very small, but three minutes later it got really big and bright,” the parent told Pear Video.

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Twitter-like Weibo, captures the moment when the fireball floats through the darkness as seen by a passenger on a domestic flight.

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Twitter-like Weibo, captures the moment when the fireball floats through the darkness as seen by a passenger on a domestic flight.

Yu Jun, lead author of the Chinese science website Guokr, told Beijing News that the fireball looked like a car, which is a very bright meteor.

China Earthquake Networks Center said it recorded the incident. The authority said through its social media account that a suspected car landed at the border between Nangqian County and Yusu County at 7:25 am.

The Nanxiang County government told Red Star News that it had heard of the case, but the details were not clear.

Explained: the difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks

A asteroid is a large piece of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the main belt.

A comet is a rock covered with ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system.

A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.

This debris itself is known as one meteoroid. Most are so small that they are evaporated into the atmosphere.

When one of these meteoroid reaches Earth, it becomes one meteorite.

Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally come from asteroids and comets.

For example, if Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris in the atmosphere burns and forms a meteor shower.

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