A 'fireball' lights up Mexico City skies, sparking awe and plenty of memes

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A agleam object, initially appearing to beryllium a meteorite, lit up the skies implicit Mexico's superior astir 3 a.m. Wednesday, stretching implicit plains, volcanoes and tiny towns.

Videos of a shot of occurrence shooting implicit the Latin American state and dissolving successful a burst of airy implicit Mexico City struck awe successful galore — and rapidly became the substance for memes circulating connected societal media.

“No, the meteorite that exploded past nighttime isn't an excuse to speech to your ex,” idiosyncratic wrote connected X, implicit a GIF of dinosaurs walking done a meteorite shower.

Soon, photos of the fireball edited with cartoon characters and governmental jokes flooded the internet.

Scientists crossed Mexico were speedy to enactment that the entity rocketing crossed the skies was not a meteorite; it was a bolide.

Bolides, defined by NASA arsenic fireballs, are “exceptionally agleam meteors that are spectacular capable to beryllium seen implicit a precise wide area.”

Mario Rodríguez, a doc successful abstraction subject with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said it could besides beryllium described arsenic a meteoroid, oregon a fragment of a meteor.

Bolides similar the 1 that coasted implicit Mexican skies aboriginal Wednesday drawback occurrence arsenic they descend to Earth.

"Due to the large unit connected the object, they statesman to flash with a stretching process and emit light,” said Rodríguez, 1 of a radical of scientists studying the videos that shocked galore Mexicans. He said dissimilar meteorites, which interaction Earth, a bolide disintegrates successful the atmosphere.

This peculiar meteoroid, helium said, was astir 1.5 meters (5 feet) successful magnitude and posed nary menace to the public.

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