A brilliant object that falls from space illuminated the skies over the capital of Mexico around 3 in the morning on Wednesday, which extends on plains, volcanoes and small cities.
The videos of a fireball shooting on the Latin American country and dissolving in an explosion of light on Mexico City astonished many, and quickly became the fuel for memes that circulate on social networks.
“No, the meteorite that exploded last night is not an excuse to talk to your ex,” someone wrote on X, about a dinosaurs gif walking through a meteorite shower.
Soon, the photos of the fireball edited with cartoon characters and political jokes flooded the Internet.
The scientists from all of Mexico quickly noticed that the object that shot in the heavens was not a meteorite; It was a bolidio.
Bolidos, defined by NASA as fireballs, are “exceptionally bright meteors that are spectacular enough to be seen in a very wide area.”
Mario RodrÃguez, a doctor of Space Sciences with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said it could also be described as a meteoroid or a fragment of a meteorite.
Bolides like the one who stopped on the Mexican skies on the early Wednesday caught fire as they descend to the earth.
“Due to the great pressure on the object, they begin to flash with a stretch tail and broadcast light,” said RodrÃguez, one of a group of scientists who study the videos that surprised many Mexicans. He said, unlike meteorites, that affect the earth, a car disintegrates in the atmosphere.
This particular meteoroid, he said, was around 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length and did not represent a threat to the public.
