At least 11 municipalities in Bahia, Sergipe and Pernambuco registered the passage of a meteor this Thursday (18th). The records were made in the Bahian municipalities of Iguaí, Irecê, Curaçá, Seabra, Salvador, Paulo Afonso and Feira de Santana. Cameras also captured the phenomenon in three cities in Sergipe: Aracaju, São Cristóvão and Monte Alegre de Sergipe, in addition to Santa Maria da Boa Vista, in the state of Pernambuco.
The images can be seen on the website of live weather.
According to the astronomer and director of the Brazilian Meteorological Observation Network (Bramon), Marcelo Zurita, asteroids, meteors and comets orbit the Sun at a very high speed, between 40,000 and 266,000 kilometers per hour.
“When they reach Earth’s atmosphere at this speed, even fragments as small as a grain of sand are capable of instantly heating atmospheric gases, generating a luminous phenomenon called a meteor. So the meteor is just the luminous phenomenon, nothing more. Meteor is not solid, it is neither liquid nor gas, it is just light. Popularly, the meteor is also called a shooting star”, explains the astronomer.
Generally speaking, astronomers say, the larger the object, the brighter the meteor. And when its luminosity surpasses Venus’ glow, the meteor is commonly called a fireball or fireball.
Sometimes, also depending on the speed and angle of entry, the meteoroid or asteroid is big enough to reach the densest layers of the atmosphere. In these cases, in addition to forming a more spectacular fireball, the meteor usually ends up with an explosive event. This type of meteor is also called a bolide.
Specialists from Clima ao Vivo, Climatempo and Bramon analyze the main images captured by climate and astronomical monitoring cameras.
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