The night of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, 15 minutes before midday, Saturday, turned into day in the dark, following a meteor penetrated the atmosphere of the two countries, and it appeared in a video as a mass of fire falling at a speed of at least 29 kilometers per second, or 104.400 per hour, equivalent to more than a quarter of the distance between the Earth and the moon.
The meteor appeared, according to eyewitnesses, close to the atmosphere of the city of “Hafr Al-Batin” in the north-east of Saudi Arabia, as well as in the atmosphere of the city of “Khafji”, adjacent to the border with Kuwait. The residents of the southeast of Kuwait also saw it, in a blue-tinted color, according to what Al-Arabiya.net had experienced, which was echoed by some of them on the communication sites, and one of them stated that “it was stony, shattered and burned before it reached the earth’s crust, which is usual,” he said.
Although the meteor appeared for 3 seconds in the displayed video, an eyewitness stated that its fall lasted 3 times this short period before burning and turning into ash scattered in the atmosphere, which is what happens to most meteorites when they fall.
The Jeddah Astronomical Society stated on its Facebook account that the meteor “caused the night sky in parts of Saudi Arabia to glow with a blue glow,” and explained that although these bright meteors are dramatic, they can be expected around this time of the year coinciding with the start of the meteor season. The guitars are active annually at this time and are famous for producing fireballs.
Meteorites enter the Earth’s outer atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 to 257,000 kilometers per hour, and slow down rapidly because they encounter friction from air clouds, “and this friction generates huge amounts of heat, causing the meteorite to evaporate or burn and glow,” according to the association.
As for the biography of meteorites mentioned on the Wikipedia information website, what reaches the Earth’s atmosphere has a speed of at least 29,000 kilometers per second on average, that is, 1740 kilometers per minute. The speed may reach 71 kilometers per second.
