Mexico (AP) – Around 3:00 am on Wednesday, a brilliant object, initially seeming to be a meteorite, lit …
Mexico City (AP) – Around 3 am, Wednesday, a brilliant object, initially seeming to be a meteorite, illuminated the sky on the capital of Mexico, stretching on the plains, volcanoes and small towns.
Videos of a fireball firing on the country of Latin America and dissolving in an explosion of light on Mexico City struck fear in many – and quickly became the fuel of the memes circulating on social networks.
“No, the meteorite that exploded last night is no excuse to speak to your ex,” someone wrote on X, on a dinosaurs' gif walking through a meteorite shower.
Soon, photos of the apparent meteor published with cartoons and political jokes have flooded the Internet.
But the scientists of Mexico quickly noted that the object crossing the sky was not a meteorite; it was a racing car.
The cars, defined by NASA as fireballs, are “exceptionally brilliant meteors which are spectacular enough to be seen in a very wide area”.
Mario Rodríguez, a doctor in space science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that it could also be described as a meteoroid or a meteor fragment.
Bolids like the one who rolled on the Mexican sky took fire on Wednesday as they go down to earth.
“Due to the great pressure on the object, they are starting to flash with a stretch tail and emitting light,” said Rodríguez, one of a group of scientists studying the videos that shocked many Mexicans. He said unlike meteorites, who have an impact on earth, a racing car is disintegrated in the atmosphere.
This particular meteoroid, he said, measured about five feet in length and threatened any threat to the public.
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