Expert Suggests Burning Object Spotted Over UK to Be Meteor From Annual Lyrid Shower

On Sunday evening, a mysterious burning object was spotted traversing the sky over the northern part of Kingston-upon-Hull, East Yorkshire, England. Eyewitnesses suggested that the object moved too slowly to be a meteor.

An astrophysics expert believes that the object spotted traversing the sky above Kingston-upon-Hull was most likely a meteor from the annual Lyrid meteor shower that takes place every year in the period from the middle to the end of April, according to the Daily Mail.

The expert said that the cause of the Lyrid meteor shower is debris left by Comet Thatcher that visited the inner Solar System almost 160 years ago, in 1861. He added that the comet is expected to visit the Earth’s atmosphere again in the year 2276 and suggested that it might burn up entering the planet’s atmosphere.

According to the Daily Mail, another similar bright object was spotted in the sky above Cambridge on Wednesday.

Deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, Robert Massey, suspected the Cambridge object to be “a lot like an aircraft contrail”.

Sourse: sputniknews.com