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Residents of the U.K. were surprised over the weekend when a slow-moving meteor blazed across the night sky.
Videos posted to social media taken from doorbells and dashcams across Britain show the fireball just before 10 p.m. on Sunday.
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A video from UK Meteor Network now has more than 100,000 views on YouTube.
“Was so clear,” Twitter user @JillHemingway wrote on Twitter alongside her own footage from Yorkshire.
Another user, @Lafford_MK, shared his nine-second video from his doorbell in the town of Milton Keynes.
@gingerssnap wrote to her followers: “Anyone else see the #meteor burn up over the UK just before 10pm tonight? I first thought it was a bright star or plane, then it got bigger & faster, then a huge flash lit up the sky & it burst into a massive tail of orange sparks trailing behind like a giant firework! So cool!”
The falling object flashed flight as it began to burn up and break down.
The meteor is likely to have been a small piece of a comet or asteroid entering the planet’s atmosphere, U.K. Meteor Network co-founder Richard Kacerek told The New York Times, noting that some pieces of it were believed to have survived the fall.
Some witnesses reported hearing a sonic boom or rumbling
Scientists from the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFall) agreed and told Yahoo News that the bright light was speeding at around 30,000 miles per hour.
Hundreds of people took to the internet with eyewitness reports of the incident.
In general, meteors are common, though less than 5% make it to the ground, according to NASA.
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The Planetary Science Institute reports that approximately 500 meteorites make it to the Earth’s surface annually, but less than 10 are found.
More than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth, most from asteroids, they report.
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