Very bright fireball explodes over South Africa, impact, meteorites possible
Featured image: Bright fireball explodes over South Africa on June 2, 2018. Credit: Barend Swanepoel
A very bright fireball exploded over northern South Africa around 16:49 UTC (18:49 local time) Saturday, June 2, 2018.
The footage, posted to Facebook by farmer Barend Swanepoel from Ottosdal, has since gone viral.
Local media reports the event as meteorite strike with impact some 100 – 200 km (62 – 124 miles) away from Barend's farm.
There are no official statements at this time.
Swanepoel's camera location near Ottosdal, South Africa. Credit: Google
A new video has emerged on June 3:
Interestingly, this event comes just one day after a similar bright fireball exploded over the Chinese city of Jinghong in Yunnan Province:
This article was updated at the following link:
Asteroid 2018 LA explodes over South Africa and Botswana several hours after discovery
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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