Disagreement over meteor crossing sky in Romania

An appearance similar to a meteor occurring in Romania on Tuesday night to Wednesday sparked the experts’ disagreement over if it was a falling star or not While the president of the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), Marius-Ioan Piso was not sure it was a meteor, other Romanian astronomer officials confirmed it was indeed a meteor.

The meteor could be observed on the sky in several Romanian counties such as Buzau, Vrancea, Covasna and Brasov. According to some witnesses quoted by Pro TV, the meteor could also be observed for a few seconds on the sky in Bucharest on Wednesday after midnight, around 03:05.

“I saw the sky intensely brightening, then, after a while, I also heard an explosion-like noise. I got scared, I went outside but I didn’t see anything anymore,” a local from Sfantu Gheorghe told Mediafax.

Some other local said he saw nothing but he heard a strong crash and thought it was an earthquake.

The meteor was also signaled by several locals in Bretcu, a village located at the border of Covasna and Bacau counties.

“I do not know if it was really a meteor. From what I saw, it was just a light that could have been generated by intense fireworks or by a military lighting rocket,” Piso said.

He went on saying there is no consistent network in Europe to observe such small meteors. “There is one in the USA and NASA observed 34 such meteors in the night of January 5 to January 6. Six out of these 34 phenomena are known, meaning they come from Leo Minor, Bootes, Hydra constellations, but the rest of 28 are, let’s say, more sporadic, they are little stones that are simply glittering,” ROSA president also stated.

On the other hand, Adrian Sonka, coordinator of “Amiral Vasile Urseanu” Observatory in Bucharest confirmed it was a meteor crossing the sky the other night.

“I saw the broadcasting on the internet and a light crossing the sky very rapidly can be seen, and it is similar to a falling star, as the planes and helicopters do not fly that fast. Besides, the meteor reflexion can be observed on the back window of the car. It is the clear shape of a meteor. When a meteor, meaning a bright trail crossing the sky, is very shiny, we say it is fire ball,” Sonka explained.

In his turn, the president of the Romanian Astronomical Society of Meteors, Valentin Grigore said that the phenomenon was caused by the melting of a meteor that reached the earthly atmosphere.