February 7, 2019
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Meteor EXPLODES over small town in western Cuba
A meteorite crashed down in western Cuba on 1 February following reports of an object seen streaking across the sky over the Florida Keys. Locals say the impact rocked Viñales, Pinar del Río with a ‘large explosion’ that shattered windows in some homes. No injuries have been reported.
Several residents are now sharing images of what they believe to be fragments of the space rock.
‘We’re receiving reports that a meteor was seen in the sky across the Florida Keys. It appears that a meteorite impact occurred in western Cuba, near the town of Viñales, Pinar del Río, earlier this afternoon,’ NWS Key West tweeted Friday afternoon amid mounting questions from locals who saw the smoking object fly overhead.
The impact occurred at around 1:20 p.m. local time. Residents of Cuba and the Florida Keys took to social media to report what they’d seen and share images of the black rocks they suspect are bits of the meteorite.
‘Only in Cuba does an apparent meteorite crash and you happen to know the person whose house was hit,’ Patrick Oppman, CNN’s Cuba correspondent, tweeted after reporting that there were no known injuries.
While the exact source of the meteor is unclear, the American Meteor Society predicted meteor activity from a slew of radiants for that week. The radiant is the area from which meteors appear to originate in the sky.
According to the AMS, the week was expected to bring as many as four meteors per hour for southern-latitude viewers, as seen from dark skies.
‘Hourly meteor rates for evening observers this week is near 3 as seen from mid-northern latitudes (45N) and 4 as seen from tropical southern locations (25S). For morning observers the estimated total hourly rates should be near 7 as seen from mid-northern latitudes and 10 from the southern tropics,’ the AMS forecast says.
Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk
