Did you see something strange in the sky last night? This is what it was
Did you see something strange in the sky last night? Something that made you question the existence- or non-existence- of extraterrestrial beings, perhaps?
Across the country people have been reporting sightings of a rather large 'fireball' in the night sky. One of our readers, Mary, in Limerick, described it as "three lights following each other with the first the most dominant" and reported seeing the lights at around 9:05pm.
Cllr Owen Hanley managed to take a video of the strange sighting which can be seen above the Claddagh in Galway city:
Even the Limerick Astronomy Club's interest was piqued:
Did you see tonight's fireballs over Ireland?
— LimerickAstronomyClub (@LimerickAstro) October 4, 2019
We're getting reports (some from our club members) of witnessing amazing fireballs tonight.
If you have photos or videos please share them!#fireball #meteor pic.twitter.com/hwZQZQMd0B
Apparently, it was also spotted in Scotland and Lancashire. One user suggested it may be the Democratic Unionist Brexit proposal... however, Astronomy Ireland are pretty sure they have identified what it actually is.
And no, it was not a shooting star, but actually a Chinese satellite that was re-entering the atmosphere, burning up over Ireland as it was doing so.
According to the Limerick Astronomy Club, the Chinese satellite was launched back in 2016.
So there you have it! Did you see the satellite last night? Let us know what you thought it was!
Another pic of the yoke that went through the sky over southern counties in Ireland tonight. I say ‘yoke’ because I know sweet FA what it was. Space junk? A Trump fart? https://t.co/uz29pEZ9XY
— Helen O'Rahilly (@HelenORahilly) October 4, 2019
