Bright fireball lights up the sky over southern France
A bright fireball streaked across southern France at 20:28 UTC (22:28 LT) on Saturday, April 24, 2021. The fireball traveled over the Gulf of Lion, from Marseille to Montpellier.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 579 reports, from France, Italy, and Switzerland.
"I thought I saw a shooting star but the fluorescent green color and the orange trail behind surprised me," wrote an observer in Saint-Maurice-de-Lignon. "The phenomenon did not last more than 3 seconds I think. It was incredible."
"Probably the brightest meteorite I have observed," wrote a watcher in Courpière, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
"[It has] intense luminosity and abnormal size," described another witness who was able to capture the event.
Images inédites de la #météorite filmées par une caméra de vidéosurveillance près de #SaintTropez dans le #Var. Jacques Reysset pour @MteoGardHerault pic.twitter.com/utHyMuIxQw
— Météo Gard – Hérault (@MteoGardHerault) April 24, 2021
Wow! Looks like this is also on the @amsmeteors Pending Reports Fireball Log. @BaileyA71989494 https://t.co/hp0cTv0DUk
— Jaime Brush, M.S. (@jaime_brush) April 24, 2021
Fireball heatmap. Image credit: AMS
Featured image credit: AMS
If you value what we do here, create 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:
