'Fireball' spotted shooting through sky in UK

A mysterious ‘fireball’ was spotted shooting through UK skies last night (Wednesday 14 September), with hundreds of reports of the unexpected phenomenon. Watch footage of it in action here: 

A number of people managed to capture the surreal sight on film, sharing the spectacle on social media. 

“Did I legit just see a shooting star in Motherwell or is that something crashing out the sky?” one person tweeted. 

Another said they’d seen the fireball going over Paisley, Scotland, last night at 10pm, and was thrilled to capture the moment in a recording. 

Sharing the footage on Twitter, they said: “Can’t believe I seen this and managed to catch it on camera!! Going over Paisley at 10pm #glasgow #paisley #meteor #comet #fireball."

According to the Press Association, there have been more than 200 reports of the strange ‘fireball’ crossing the night sky - with the UK Meteor Network confirming that it started receiving reports at 9pm. 

The network tweeted to say it was 'investigating to ascertain what the object was meteor or space debris’, explaining that the majority of the reports had come from Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Danny Nell, 21, was walking his dog in Johnstone, just west of Paisley and Glasgow, when he saw the fireball in the sky. 

The Glasgow resident told PA: “I was walking my dog and it was strangely enough 10pm on the dot and I just saw the flash in the sky and pulled out my phone and recorded it. 

“I thought it may be a firework at first because there was a lot of Scottish football on but quickly realised it wasn’t and just grabbed my phone to see if I could catch it.” 

While it has not yet been confirmed whether or not the fireball was a meteor or space debris, according to the UK Meteor Network, there is actually such a thing as a 'fireball meteor'.

Their website explains: "Have you ever seen a very bright meteor? Congratulations, you most likely saw a fireball! A fireball is simply a bright meteor streaking across the sky.

"Compared to the planet Venus which is about -4 magnitude, a fireball has to be brighter than Venus.

"Fireballs come in a variety of speeds and even colours. Bright meteors, fireballs, occur randomly throughout the year and we tend to see small explosions. UKMON usually records half a dozen of these types of events."