The European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed this. car flying over the Iberian Peninsula on Saturday evening This is not a meteorite. ESA’s Planetary Protection Office carried out a thorough analysis of the size and trajectory of the glowing object to assess whether any material may have fallen to the surface. Within hours, the agency ruled out that it was a meteorite.
“It seems that this object It was a small piece of a comet“, ESA said on its X (Twitter) account. “We estimate that it flew over Spain and Portugal at a speed of approximately 45 km/s and then burned up over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of approximately 60 km,” it added. The meteorite that disrupted social media was detected by an ESA camera at 22:46 UTC (00:46 Spanish time).
On the other hand, the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics CSIC mentioned that the car Before dying out, it traveled 500 kilometers.. José Luis Ortiz, a researcher at the IAA-CSIC Solar System Division, said the phenomenon occurred after a comet fragment entered the atmosphere. Object of increased luminosity It flew through the skies of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula and never posed a danger to the population..
The CISC indicated that the car collided with the upper atmosphere at a speed of 161,000 kilometers per hour. According to the analysis, a piece of the comet It became visible in Badajoz and moved northwest towards Portugal. before disappearing into the Atlantic Ocean. The researchers add that the rock maintained a trajectory just 10 degrees above horizontal, increasing its visibility.
ESA rules out that it is a meteorite
After hundreds of videos were posted on social media, many claimed that the object flying across the sky was a meteorite. Taking this into account, ESA stated that the probability of detecting meteorites is very low.
Office of Planetary Defense It is a vital part of the ESA, which aims to protect the Earth from space threats, mainly from asteroids and comets. Its activities focus on three main areas: surveillance, data provision and mitigation.
The first is focused on knowledge of the current and future position of near-Earth objects relative to our planet. To do this they rely on network of telescopes and radar systems around the worldwhich provide important data for assess and monitor possible threats. If it is determined that the asteroid may be hazardous, ESA will coordinate with NASA and other space agencies to reduce the risk.
Although the chances of being hit by another Chicxulub are slim, ESA remains vigilant. “It is very unlikely that one of these huge asteroids will collide with our planet, but small and medium-sized rocks are quite common in the solar system and can also cause serious damage,” he said.
Source: Hiper Textual
