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Nikita Folomov. Sputnik International
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Unknown fireballs are not very rare these days. Thousands of meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, bursting to pieces and attracting the attention of people around the world. However, sometimes such fireballs are huge, and even scientists find it difficult to explain the origin of the phenomena.
An unidentified flying object crashed in China’s Nanqiang Province in Qinghai Province on Wednesday, Chinese media reported. According to the reports, there were no casualties or damage from the incident, but it was accompanied by loud bangs heard by many residents.
The fireball has been captured on camera by locals and the video has gone viral on social media.
The images show that the sky is illuminated by an extremely bright light as the fireball flies over Qinghai province for about 20 seconds.
Chinese media suggested the ball could have been a bolide, a bright meteor that usually explodes when it enters the atmosphere.
According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the impact of the fireball was recorded near the border of Nanqiang and Yushu provinces, where the object reportedly crashed.
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has estimated that the estimated total optical energy radiated was equal to the energy released in the explosion of 9.5 kilotons of trinitrotoluene, making it the largest fireball event in China since 1988.
The largest recorded fireball incident in the world was the Russian meteorite in Chelyabinsk, which illuminated the sky over the Russian city on February 15, 2013, with a total optical radiated energy equal to the energy released in the explosion of 440 kilotons of trinitrotoluene.