By Elizabeth Antidius Shumbusho | Africa Guardian
Residents of Eastern Cape, South Africa, were startled by a bright streak of light in the sky over St Francis Bay on Sunday morning, August 25. Initial reports on the internet and in the media speculated that the phenomenon might be space debris, possibly from a satellite, entering Earth’s atmosphere. However, scientists have since confirmed that it was a meteorite.
Researchers from Wits University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) had been closely monitoring the event after receiving reports of an unusual sighting in the sky. The meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere at a low trajectory, breaking apart as it burned up. Some fragments reportedly fell into the ocean, as observed by the captain of a whale-watching boat in the area.
Professor Roger Gibson from the Wits School of Geosciences noted that the incident was consistent with a rocky asteroid, roughly the size of a car, entering the atmosphere at an extremely high speed. This marks the first confirmed meteorite fall in South Africa in 50 years, an event that triggered a widespread sonic boom heard across the region.
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