At around 6.50 p.m. Sunday evening, a large flash of light was seen in the sky for a few seconds across large parts of Flanders. According to the Urania Observatory, this was most likely caused by a small rock that collided with the atmosphere of the Earth. The flash was also visible in neighbouring countries. In Germany, the meteorite also caused damage in several places. There were no reports of casualties.
At around 6.50 p.m. yesterday evening, many people across Flanders saw a flash of light in the sky that resembled a fireball. We received reports from all Flemish provinces, including from the towns of Kortrijk, Dendermonde, Kapellen, Balen, Brussels, Heverlee, Tienen and Tongeren. ‘It had a yellowish colour with a number of explosions occurring,’ eyewitnesses said.
‘It was a small rock that entered the atmosphere at a very high speed of some 100,000 kilometres per hour and at an altitude of 70 kilometres,’ explains Marc Van den Broeck of the Urania Observatory. ‘You could see it over a very large area.’ Because it was at such a high altitude, it was seen in many places.
‘People feel that it is close by, but that is not the case,’ he says. Van den Broeck compares it to a shooting star. ‘That's just a tiny speck of dust. If it's a fireball, as was the case here, it's usually a small stone,’ he says. How sure is he of that? ‘Based on the observations, it's very likely that it was indeed a small stone.’
It is not uncommon for a meteorite, a piece of rock or metal from space, to collide with the Earth's atmosphere and break apart. The phenomenon is usually observed at night or early in the morning.