Dozens of people in Bavaria made a terrifying discovery in the middle of the day on Monday (April 6) - an expert explains the spectacle in the sky.
- Numerous Bavarians made a terrifying discovery on Monday afternoon.
- They observed a fireball that passed the sky and reported it.
- An expert has now explained the eerie phenomenon.
Update of April 6, 2020: Amazing observation in Bavaria: A powerful flash of light scared numerous eyewitnesses around 3:30 p.m. Over 80 people from Upper Bavaria and Swabia reported sighting a so-called fireball , which could be located around Ellmau (near Kitzbühel) to Mondsee (Salzburg).
According to Dieter Heinlein, coordinator of the fireball network at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the meteorite was between 30 and 80 kilometers high. A motorist on the A 9 also reported a light phenomenon to the police, who, however, searched in vain for Ingolstadt.
Fireball over Bavaria: expert explains the background
Update from October 19, 7:01 am: "A fireball is nothing more than a very large shooting star," explains Benjamin Mirwald, head of the Volkssternwarte in Munich. "So a meteor." A fireball on the firmament is by no means an everyday occurrence, but it does occur several times a year.
The fact that the fireball on Wednesday evening caused such a sensation may have to do with the pleasant time and the nice weather. "Primetime," jokes Mirwald.
Also read on Merkur.de *: Mysterious radio flashes from space reach Earth - a hint of extraterrestrial signals?
Fireball moves across Bavaria's sky - expert clears up
It will be particularly exciting for researchers and space agencies if the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorite is the name of the objects that are left over from the sky spectacle and actually land on Earth.
Using the video from our reader Leo S., it would also be easier to calculate a trajectory.
Based on the size of the object in the video, Mirwald does not assume that much is left for the ground.
So what exactly went over the sky as a fireball remains speculation for the time being. "It could also have been space junk."
Exciting: Mirwald confirms the observation of many of our readers: "The fireball was actually rather slow for a meteor." Most are significantly faster.
Update of October 18, 9:33 am: After the publication of this article, over a hundred reports of sightings of the same unknown flying object were received. It actually seems to have made an impression.
Based on the reports, the crash site - or at least the region where the object came closest to the ground - can be assigned a little more precisely.
Map: All sightings summarized - object flew west of Ulm
UFO fireball over Bavaria - Location: Object brightest between Augsburg and Ulm
South of Munich, i.e. between the city limits and the edge of the Alps, the object appeared like an oversized shooting star that for a second drew a path across the sky.
Between Ulm and Augsburg, however, the messages read quite differently. Here our readers report - many thanks at this point for each individual letter - of a large, orange-red fireball with a bluish tail. "You heard something," writes Andi from Ulm. "It sounded like burning wood." A crackle.
However, our observers could not verify an impact. On the contrary. A caller from the Augsburg area observed that the object ended up breaking up its journey into several parts, which then disappeared into the dark.
A Daniel Grath from Sindelsdorf writes:
"If I remember correctly, the object broke (once) when it burned up and I think I saw that it was not completely burned up, but that a part no longer glowing hit the earth."
Ernst Schmidhuber from Hohenpeißenberg writes:
“A very bright, wide, whitish beam of light falling from an elliptical curve from west to northwest. Appearance lasting several seconds. In the end, splintering into several small red-hot parts, like a fireworks rocket. "
A reader who has observed the object also writes from Switzerland.
On the website of the Meteorastronomy section, numerous sightings of the fireball over Bavaria were also received on Wednesday evening. There, experts were even able to determine an approximate trajectory of the object based on the observations.
UFO fireball over Bavaria: object much slower than shooting star
Also striking for many observers: the object flew much slower than a shooting star.
Original article, October 17, 2019
The object could be seen from the edge of the Alps to Munich. Our editorial team has received several reports - from Tegernsee to the south of Munich. Somewhere in between, the object has hit the ground as it stands.
Observers consistently describe a sudden lighting up in the evening sky, around 8:50 p.m. A reader from Dachau observed the property from Müllerstadelstrasse on the city limits of Munich to the Fürstenfeldbruck district. "The fireball was much larger than a shooting star, round, glowing white with a reddish flame or glowing tail." The direction of flight describes the Dachauer from "Southwest to North".
UFO alarm south of Munich: three confirmed sightings of the same object
At the same time, the object was even visible from Lake Tegernsee. Those who looked towards the northwest from the Tegernsee lake shore at 8:50 p.m. saw a bright glow in the evening sky. Here the tail appeared almost greenish. The object described a slightly oblique path from the sky towards the horizon, becoming brighter and brighter as if it were falling towards Lake Tegernsee.
After the publication of this article, a reader from Augsburg reports, who also observed the fireball. From his perspective, he flew towards Munich.
What is special compared to a shooting star: The object did not burn up after a fraction of a second, but shone brighter and brighter on its way and could be seen for seconds until it disappeared behind trees and mountains - like a falling flying object. As an observer, one could assume that the object has struck somewhere.
If you compare the previously known sightings of the same object with each other, the object should have struck somewhere northwest of the Alpine edge and southwest of Munich.
UFO alarm between the edge of the Alps and Munich: is it a meteorite?
No shooting star, but glowing bright with a tail. The suspicion of a meteorite is obvious. A response to a corresponding request to various government agencies is still pending.
The course and type of appearance make it rather unlikely that it was an earthly flying object.
Until then, the fireball actually remains a UFO - an unidentified flying object.
At the police headquarters, no reports of a sighting or a crash site have yet been received.
By the way: There was already a UFO alarm in Wolfratshausen this year - but it had very earthly reasons ( Merkur.de * ).
Also interesting: astronomers now made a picture of a phenomenon in space that could come from the Free State of Bavaria.
Dangerous asteroid on course - ESA researchers are alarmed.
Like a giant bubble in which the light is reflected in all possible colors: a NASA photo fascinates - but the story behind it tells of a gigantic destruction.
Space researchers are planning a novelty to steer an asteroid out of its orbit.
The near-earth giant star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion has dramatically lost its brightness. Some astronomers interpret it as a harbinger of a supernova in the universe.
Astronomers have now made an astonishing discovery in space: six objects have been identified in the center of the Milky Way that have so far not been classified.
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* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © Leo S./Merkur.de
