Over Puerto Rico exploded in a spectacular fireball

On Friday night, something exploded in the sky over Puerto Rico. "A huge meteor lit up the sky directly to the West of the island," says Frankie Lucena, automatic camera which recorded the flash.

"According to my software, the brightness of the explosion reached Shine -7,4, which is almost 20 times brighter than Venus,' he says. Any unburnt fragments had to land somewhere between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic".

What was it? Using the map of the sky, Lucena has traced the path of the meteor back to its source — the area near the constellation Taurus. It really could have been a meteor from a stream Tauride.

In November, the Earth crosses a stream of debris of the comet Encke. The resulting rain of meteors is notable because comet Encke produces fireballs — meteors are so bright that it can cast a shadow on the ground.

Debris from comet Encke differ from the debris of other comets. In the flow of many particles the size of a pebble, which is much larger than the usual cometary dust. Some of these meteoroids are traveling in swarms that produce a flash every 7 years, the last of which was recorded in 2015.

Fragments of Encke is unusual, as the comet is the product of the destruction of a much larger comet 30 thousand years ago. At least two small asteroid (2015 TX24 and UR 2005) divide the orbit with gravel swarms Taurito on the thread you can hide and other small space rocks. All this testifies to the catastrophic event in the past and potentially on spectacular fireball in the future. Every night for the next two weeks we will see a meteor shower, when Earth will cross the debris of comet Encke.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»