Big fireball ‘falls from the skies and falls into Chinese city’

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Big fireball ‘falls from the skies and falls into Chinese county’, leaving locals in awe

  • A huge fireball was seen shining across the skies today over Nangqian, China
  • The photos show the firing range exploding and falling into the county
  • The local media suggested that the fast-moving object could be a very clear meteor
  • An earthquake authority in China said a suspected bolide hit the ground at 7.25am

By Billie Thomson For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A huge fireball was seen shining across the sky and entering a county in southern China.

Photographs of captured locals show an unknown object exploding into a field of fire as it falls at a rapid speed toward the ground.

It is not immediately clear what the fireball is, but local media suggest it could be a very bright meteor. No casualties were reported.

The huge fireball was seen shining across the skies over Nangqian in China this morning

Various clips on Chinese social media show the suspected meteor lighting up the skies

Various clips on Chinese social media show the suspected meteor lighting up the skies

Various clips on Chinese social media show the suspected meteor lighting up the skies as it crashed into Nangqian county in the northwest of Qinghai Province in China.

The incident is said to have happened around 7am on Wednesday. Local residents said they heard loud bangs.

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Twitter-like Weibo, captures the moment the fireball passes through the darkness as seen by a passenger on a flight from Xi’an to Lhasa.

The incident is said to have happened around 7am on Wednesday

Local residents said they heard loud bangs

The incident is said to have happened around 7am on Wednesday in northwest China

In another piece of film, the burning object can be seen descending swiftly towards hills and fields.

In a third clip, the fireball becomes brighter and larger as it approaches the ground.

Dan Ba, a local man, said he saw the fireball while taking his child to school.

‘It started out very small, but three minutes later it became really big and clear,’ the parent told Pear Video.

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Weibo-like Twitter, captures the moment the fireball goes up through the darkness as seen by a person- travel on a domestic flight

One of the videos, shared by a science blogger on Weibo-like Twitter, captures the moment the fireball goes up through the darkness as seen by a person- travel on a domestic flight

Yu Jun, lead writer of Chinese science website Guokr, told Beijing News that the fireball looked like a bolide, which is a very bright meteor.

The China Earthquake Network Center said they recorded the incident. The authority said through its social media account that a suspected bolide landed near the border between Nangqian County and Yusu County at 7.25am.

The Nanxiang County Government told Red Star News that they had heard about the matter but were not clear about the information.

Explained: The difference between an asteroid, meteorite and other space rocks

An asteroid a large lump of rock is left over from accidents or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.

A. comet rock is covered with ice, methane and other fertilizers. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system.

A. meteor that’s what astronomers call a shower of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.

Canar a meteoroid. Most of them are so small that they are moved in the atmosphere.

If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites usually come from asteroids and comets.

For example, if the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, much of the debris burns up into the atmosphere, creating a showerhead.

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