Skies over Stirling lit up as residents report sightings of “massive meteor”

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The skies above Stirling were lit up this week by a meteor passing overhead.The eye-catching phenomenon was visible across Scotland on Wednesday evening.Sightings were reported in Stirling, Dunblane, Kippen, Killearn and Strathblane.A meteor shower is an occurrence in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky.Meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids which enter Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories.A meteorite is a meteor which breaches the Earth’s atmosphere and lands on its surface.The vast majority of meteors are smaller than a grain of sand and in most cases these disintegrate and never hit Earth.One eagle-eyed gazer spotted the amazing sight from her Kingdom Court home, in Kippen.Caroline Cooper spotted the “massive meteor” at around 10pm and captured video footage of it.Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.She said: “We were sitting on the couch and it caught my eye through the window.

I ran over and opened the window.“It was bright green with a red tail and we could see it for about 30 seconds before it broke up with a flash of red.“It came from the south and was heading north west.“It was so bright.

A really amazing thing to see.”Paul Hamilton spotted a “long flash of light and sound of an explosion” in Dunblane.He took to the ‘Dunblane Network’ Facebook page on Wednesday evening.

He posted: “Did anyone else witness the long flash of light and sound of an explosion over Dunblane a few minutes ago?“I’ve seen meteors before and this was a much bigger and longer trail with a bang.“It was in view long enough for me to unlock the door and then watch it head towards the Callander