The internet is alight with footage of a meteor that sped through the night skies over Portugal and Spain, lighting up the skies as a blue-green fireball.
The meteor was confirmed by European Space Agency (ESA), who caught the fireball with its cameras in Cáceres, Spain, at 6:46 p.m. EDT (22:46 UTC) on Saturday (May 18). The ESA confirmed that the fireball was a piece of a comet that rocketed over Spain and Portugal, traveling at around 100,000 miles per hour, or about 65 times as fast as the top speed of a Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter. The ESA added that the meteor likely burned up over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of around 38 miles (60 kilometers) over Earth.
Social media users took to X, Facebook, and Reddit by the thousands to discuss the bright fireball and share stunning images and videos.
