Meteor explodes over Wales creating sonic boom that set off car alarms
Stock photo: Rex
Tourists and locals have spoken of how a meteor "lit up the sky" over Wales - and then exploded causing a sonic boom that shook windows and set off car alarms.
The golf ball-sized meteor exploded over South Wales, waking children with its "bomb-like" bang.
Police and coastguards had dozens of reports of a bright flash in the sky followed by a loud bang.
Resident Steve Edwards told the Telegraph: "There was an enormous boom - It sounded like a bomb going off.
"The force of it shook the windows in my house, woke up my children and caused car alarms to start going off in the streets.
"I'm just glad none of it landed on my roof."
According to walesonline.co.uk, other people took to Twitter and forums to describe the sight, with Nathan Jones, from St Athan, writing on Meteorite News: "I saw an object, I can't specify what, with a heat trail behind. It was orange and white and very bright, and also seemed very close, not that I could see.
"Never seen something so amazing in my life. It looked like it was skimming through the atmosphere due to the curved path it was taking."
The meteor was first spotted in the North West before speeding towards the border of Wales, and finally exploding over Cwmbran, near Newport, South Wales.
Astrophysician Dr David Whitehouse told the Telegraph: "It was a piece of space rock coming into the earth's atmosphere and burning up as it does.
"It's the size of a golf ball, it's coming in very, very quickly and leaving a bright tail as it vaporises.
"It's incredibly bright, it burns at an altitude of 60 to a 100 miles above the earth. It's not unusual for it to be seen for a couple of 100 miles all across the country."
David said that humans have nothing to fear from a meteor this size, with there being no records of anyone being killed by one, and the likelihood of being struck by lightning is far higher.
He added: "Very rarely something large will come into contact with the earth, like the one which helped the dinosaurs on it's way - that was the size of Britain.
"But this meteor is a wonder of nature, something in the night sky to be admired and enjoyed."
Read more at Telegraph.co.uk
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