An astronomer from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town says it’s unlikely that a meteor, which exploded over Cape Town on Wednesday night, would have made any impact on land.
The astronomical show was witnessed across large parts of the Mother City, Helder and Overberg and has set social media abuzz.
The meteor, a body of matter from outer space, is estimated to have been about one meter in length.
Unconfirmed possible meteor . Sightings in Hermanus, Cape Town, Brackenfell and Stellenbosch. Loud bang that shook windows. Natham Krumm @SABCnews @eNCAWeather @debeer_anika @ReenvalSA @CPowellWx @NetNuus_ZA @JacaNews @volksbladnuus @huisgenoot @MOBSERV pic.twitter.com/b9VQ7j6efC
— Weather Today Africa (@weathertodaysa) January 16, 2019
Dr Daniel Cunnama says these occurrences are fairly common. However, seeing one over a major city, is more rare.
“With these one-meter ones, there is very little cause for concern. We expect about 20 or 30 a year, but they seldom make landfall. Bigger ones are more concerning and efforts are underway to detect these sorts of things. The observatory here is actually busy constructing a telescope which will be operational next year in collaboration with NASA. That telescope is going to be called Atlsat and it will be specifically designed to detect these sorts of objects before they impact.”
I heard a loud bang, like a gas bottle exploding, but people saw it….. A flipping meteorite! pic.twitter.com/m4nHeRpLdb
— Dave.apter@gmail.com (@dave_apter) January 16, 2019
