Bolide Meteor Blamed for Mystery Boom Heard in Southwest England

An image of a meteor captured by the O’Prey family over the Bailiwick of Jersey around 3 p.m. GMT on March 20th.

An image of a meteor captured by the O’Prey family over the Bailiwick of Jersey around 3 p.m. GMT on March 20th.

Residents of the counties Dorset, Somerset, and Devon in England, along with the Bailiwick of Jersey, reported hearing a loud boom on Saturday, March 20th, just before 3 p.m. GMT, which residents said shook their homes and windows. Some residents reported seeing a daytime fireball accompanying the boom.

Following the boom, The British Geological Survey was quick to rule out an earthquake.

Similarly, The Ministry of Defence said the disruption was not due to any RAF aircraft, and police departments in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Avon, and Somerset said they have had no reported incidents related to the noise.

Soon after the reports of the boom began to circulate, science journalist and astronomer Will Gater connected those reports with reports of a fireball seen in the same area.

A few hours later, Simon Proud, a specialist in aviation meteorology at the University of Oxford, shared weather satellite footage which showed a flash of light flying over the UK at the time of the sightings.

Meanwhile, multiple residents in the fireball’s flight path shared images and footage of it, including the above photo shared by the O’Prey family of Jersey, and Ollie Peart of Dorchester, who recorded the boom.

Ultimately, experts labeled the fireball as a bolide meteor and blamed its inordinate speed for the boom heard by people like Peart.

The meteor must have been "very large" and among the brightest "bolide class" meteor to produce a rare "daytime fireball," said Richard Kacerek of the UK Meteor Observation Network.

According to Dr. Ashley King of the UK Fireball Alliance, the meteor "would have been going faster than the speed of sound."

"Normally when you hear that it's a good sign that you have got rocks that have made it to the surface. It's incredibly exciting and I'm a bit stunned," he said.

Data from cameras is being analyzed to track the fireball, and people near Devon, Dorset, and Somerset are being asked to report any fragments found, which will likely take the form of small, blackish stones or a mound of dark dust.

A similar fireball was reported over the UK all the way from Scotland to Somerset just before 10 p.m. GMT on February 28th of this year. Several rocky fragments of the meteor believed to be responsible for that fireball were later recovered in Gloucestshire.

And in February of 2020, Derby resident Gary Rogers captured a dazzling ball of light in the sky on his doorbell camera at 11:30 p.m., which astronomy experts explained as a bolide meteor.

Bolide meteors are extremely bright bits of exploding space debris that burn up in Earth's atmosphere, and are often held responsible for sightings of fireballs.

These meteors have been blamed for other, similarly astonishing displays, including a spectacular fireball captured on camera by several residents of the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia in April of 2019, and a bright green fireball seen in the early morning hours of November 2018 over Akademgorodok, Russia.

Bolide meteors were also offered as explanations for mystery booms in California, Michigan, and Washington in 2018.

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