The inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, suffered a great fright when they saw how the night lit up with a meteor. It is the largest observed in the region since October 2020.
The meteor was recorded by the Heller & Jung Space Observatory, the early hours of last Tuesday, November 29.
Carlos Ferdinand Jung, researcher in charge of the observatory, explained that it is a superbolide with a magnitude of -12. “It entered our atmosphere at a height of 124 kilometers, extinguishing itself at 112 kilometers,” explained Jung, quoted by Brazilian Mail.
This is not the first time that this type of event has occurred in Rio Grande do Sul. In October 2020, a beam of light from space illuminated the night in Caxias do Sul, 96 kilometers from Porto Alegre, the state capital.
It was moving at approximately 60,900 kilometers per hour, according to studies by local astronomers.
What was seen in the sky of Brazil was a meteor and not a meteorite, why?
What is the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?
In accordance with National Geographic, A meteor is the luminous phenomenon that is produced by the ionization of the air, when the meteoroids are attracted by the terrestrial gravity and come into contact with the atmosphere.
In the case of meteorites, They are meteoroids that manage to cross the Earth’s atmosphere and reach the Earth’s surface.
The meteoroids they are tiny bits of rattan and metal: most of them vaporize upon reaching Earth’s atmosphere, leaving behind a trail of glowing dust known as a…meteor or “shooting star”.
Therefore, according to the researchers, what was seen in the sky of Brazil was a meteor. If they manage to get the remains, somewhere on the earth’s surface, it becomes known as a meteorite.