Dazzling Videos Catch Massive Blue Flash Lighting Up The Sky In Parts Of Europe

A massive blue-green meteor streaked through the skies of Portugal and Spain over the weekend, and videos of the event are both shocking and beautiful.

Millions were stunned and alarmed when they spotted the fireball soaring dangerously close to Earth on Saturday, May 18. While people were initially unsure what to think of the spectacle, The European Space Agency (ESA) identified it as a meteor after it caught footage on its cameras in Cáceres, Spain, at 6:46 PM EDT.

The fireball shot across the sky going around 10,000 miles per hour, and the ESA believes it likely burned up somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. However, the agency says it’s still possible it hit Earth. According to an X post, the Planetary Defence Office is “currently [analyzing] the size and trajectory of the object to assess the chance that any material made it to the surface.”

Social media users, including media personality Collin Rugg, also caught chance footage of the meteor. And it’s dazzling viewers all over the internet.

“Early reports claim that the blue flash could be seen darting through the night sky for hundreds of kilometers. At the moment, it has not been confirmed if it hit the Earth’s surface however some reports say it may have fallen near the town of Castro Daire,” he captioned. “Other reports say it was closer to Pinheiro.”

Meteors, also known as shooting stars, are pieces of comets, asteroids, or even the moon that break off and fall into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of these objects disintegrate before they can reach the ground. But if they do survive, they’re typically reduced to dust or tiny rocks called meteorites.

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.