Videos of a supposed meteorite sweeping across the sky of Northern Turkey before exploding like a light bomb were shared online by eyewitnesses from several provinces over the last two days. The observers reported that the event took place on Wednesday at around 8:30 p.m. local time and according to the Daily Sabah was confirmed by authorities in the Black Sea province of Trabzon.
Is meteorite fall in Turkey ? Oh my 😳
— IU∞BTS (@_violets8) May 27, 2020
Many of of people from other cities also saw it , what s going on @NASA , you should explain it .
pic.twitter.com/trFJU6mCEO
The images of the meteorite were captured last night by CCTV cameras in Turkey's border provinces.🌠🌠🌠
— Fatima kosar (@Fatima25369798) May 28, 2020
Local Turkish sources say the luminous object landed in Turkey.🌠🌠🌠 pic.twitter.com/W3Ynz8z0xm
2020 wouldn’t be 2020 without a meteorite falling... in turkey pic.twitter.com/xat5eiKSDw
— yasemin 🇹🇷 (@yaspsa) May 27, 2020
Ozan Ünsalan from Ege University who leads Turkey's Meteorite Tracking Project told Daily Sabah that the object was a “typical meteorite”.
“It is seen that it is going from Erzurum to Artvin, and it has likely fallen to Sochi or Georgia,” the researcher said. “According to our first assessments, we think that it may have fallen into the sea.”
Similar footage supposedly featuring the same object was earlier shared by the head of Armenia’s Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Service, Gagik Surenyan. The official dubbed the object a “big meteorite” that was also witnessed on the evening of 27 May, but the observers suggested at that time that it could have fallen in the vicinity of the town of Hrazdan, several dozens of kilometres from the capital Yerevan.
According to Ünsalan, Turkish researchers have been in contact with NASA to determine the nature of the ball of light. Meteorites are debris from space objects, including asteroids or comets, and unlike meteoroids, they do not burn in the atmosphere but manage to strike the Earth; they are accompanied by a magnificent streak of light and even a small earthquake.