Fragments of meteor sighted in Co Down could have landed in Downpatrick

A "fireball" spotted over Co Down on Tuesday evening has been confirmed as a meteor.

The asteroid is predicted to have been around 1-2metre in diameter and travelling at around 10-15km per second.

Dashcam footage taken by X user, County Down Cycling, was posted online showing a flash of light in the sky at Temple roundabout on the A24 towards Ballynahinch.

UTV showed the footage to PHD researcher Andrew Marshall Lee at Armagh Planetarium who confirmed this was in fact a meteor.

"Towards the end of the video, what you can see is as it gets close to the ground it goes 'poof' as it breaks into lots of little fragments," said Mr Lee.

"This happens because the friction of the air heats up the asteroid so much that it blows itself apart."

Mr Lee believes the meteorites from the asteroid would have landed close to Downpatrick.

While cosmic events like this are seen here every two to three months, capturing it happening is always special.

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