A resident of Derby unexpectedly captured a clip in which a meteor can be seen entering the frame of the video as an exploding fireball.
Fifty-two-year-old Gary Rogers was about to sleep when he received a text on his phone from his smart doorbell, alerting him of suspicious activity going on near his house.
As a matter of fact, Gary was not visited by a burglar or a shady character from a horror movie, and what alerted the doorbell was a meteor that had burnt through the sky and exploded into a gigantic fireball.
Watch the incident recorded by Gary in the video below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Gary said: “I was in bed and was about to go to sleep when my phone pinged. I couldn’t believe it.
“I thought it was a firework at first, but I listened to the sound and you couldn’t hear any noise. I’ve seen shooting stars before but never a meteor.
“I thought it’s definitely not a firework, it was too bright for that. The whole horizon was lit up and there was no sound.
“I saw the trail first then it exploded into the sky. I knew then it was a meteor. ‘There was a huge semicircular flash. It was really nice to see.
“I showed it to my son Euan and he was really excited.
“I was expecting it to be a fox or hedgehog like usual. My friends have been saying it’s like something out of War of the Worlds.”
Meteors and fireballs do not come according to a plan and can’t be predicted like snow and rain, hence capturing them on camera is highly improbable.
Speaking of the incident, the chairman of Sherwood Observatory, Rob Dawes, said: “Mr. Rogers was very lucky to get such a nice bright one.
“But you’d be surprised how many of these do come into the atmosphere at any time of year.”
Meteors approach the earth on a regular basis but they almost never get to “hit” the surface as they are burnt to ashes in the sky due to the friction with the atmosphere.
However, when they do hit the earth in a rare occurrence, the damage can be colossal.
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