Christmas star: Beautiful slow-moving meteor recorded over the Mediterranean Sea
A slow-moving meteor was observed and recorded falling over the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday, December 23, 2017. The event lasted about 14 seconds before the object disintegrated in a bright flash.
"This beautiful meteor, which resembles a Christmas star, was spotted over Spain at 21:07 UTC on December 23, 2017," said José María Madiedo, the principal investigator of the SMART Project framework.
The meteor flew over the Mediterranean Sea in front of Almería's coasts, southeastern Spain and was produced by a fragment from a comet that hit the atmosphere at about 43 000 km/h (26 700 mph).
Video courtesy SMART Project, METEOROIDES
"The slow-moving object began at an altitude of around 93 km (57.8 miles) over the Mediterranean Sea, and ended at about 60 km (37.3 miles) over the sea," Madiedo said.
Slow-moving meteor over the Mediterranean Sea on December 23, 2017 – trajectory. Credit: SMART Project
The meteor was recorded by the framework of the SMART Project (University of Huelva) from the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), La Hita (Toledo) and Sevilla.
Featured image: Slow-moving meteor over the Mediterranean Sea on December 23, 2017. Credit: SMART Project, METEOROIDES
If you value what we do here, open your ad-free account and support our journalism.
Related articles
Producing content you read on this website takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work. If you value what we do here, select the level of your support and register your account.
Your support makes this project fully self-sustainable and keeps us independent and focused on the content we love to create and share.
All our supporters can browse the website without ads, allowing much faster speeds and a clean interface. Your comments will be instantly approved and you’ll have a direct line of communication with us from within your account dashboard. You can suggest new features and apps and you’ll be able to use them before they go live.
You can choose the level of your support.
Stay kind, vigilant and ready!
You can also support us by sending us a one-off payment using PayPal:
Why are you saying a meteor is a star? Does anyone read these comments?
Are you sure that was a meteor? I’ve never seen one move that slow. More like space junk.