Experts believe fireball that lit up the night sky as it crossed Northern Ireland was space debris

A “brilliant fireball” seen in the skies above parts of the UK is believed to have been space debris, experts have said.

The UK Meteor Network said it had received almost 800 reports after the blazing orb was spotted in the night sky on Wednesday.

The organisation said that having studied many videos of the incident, it is now of the opinion “this was space debris”.

It comes after people spotted the ball of light in the skies above parts of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland.

The network tweeted: “There have been nearly 800 reports of the fireball that was seen over UK last night.”

It said the preliminary trajectory has been calculated by the International Meteor Organisation, and this “indicates that the object, which we now believe to be space debris, would have landed in the Atlantic south of the Hebrides”.

The network added: “Having studied many videos of last night’s fireball over Ireland, Northern England and Scotland, we are of the opinion this was space debris.”

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