video. Meteor, satellite, missile, what was this “UFO” that crossed the Catalan sky?

A fireball sighting on Friday evening sparked curiosity and then concern in Spain. A story of controversy where everyone had their own hypothesis about a “UFO”… which wasn’t one.

Story begins Friday, March 29, at 10:59 p.m. A bright line first crosses Catalonia on the French side, then the Spanish sky above Barcelona before disappearing on the Valencian coast. The object eluded all radar and was immediately scorned.

Bureau of Meteorite Investigation NoSpanish institute Space science initially chose two extremely reassuring hypotheses. According to scientists at the office, it was either an object entering space or perhaps a French missile launch.

On Saturday 31, the design office returned to its hypothesis, excluding the possibility of a missile while the Spanish media began to seriously study this possibility.

Then another hypothesis was that the satellite of the American company Starlink, which may have fallen back into the atmosphere. The Luftwaffe, the German air force, came to this conclusion after its own analysis. a conclusion which the German ambassador to Spain hastily adopted.

The satellite hypothesis was in turn contradicted by scientists from the largest universities.

According to the researchers, it was ultimately a simple asteroid that entered the atmosphere, as often happens.

But why did it shine for so long when meteors normally disintegrate in seconds? The answer would be the rarity of the meteor that crossed French and Spanish skies on Friday evening.

Space pebbles will measure less than a meter and re-enter the atmosphere along a grazing path, while meteorites often fall more vertically. Moreover, it may very well come out of the atmosphere after flattening the Earth.

The rarity of such a meteorite would be a case in a million… so it was certainly worth it that this ordinary stone crushed on the other side of the Pyrenees.