On Saturday night, hundreds of individuals in Portugal (together with a large number of people in France and Spain) saw the breathtaking transit of a meteor through the earth's atmosphere.
It doesn't seem like the debris that was initially reported had landed at Castro Daire, which is in the far north of the Viseu area.
Whatever remains of the meteor will have fallen into the water because, according to scientists, it virtually burnt up throughout its route from north of Mérida, in southeast Spain, to the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Porto.
Firefighters from Castro Daire did venture out in the wee hours to look for any indications that the meteor had struck the area, but they came up empty.
Just before midnight, there was a brief but unforgettable moment that many people will never forget. Some described it as "the best moment of their lives," while others were "terrified" and believed there may be a missile attack.
Dogs are said to be "extremely agitated" by the phenomena, which has since been "tracked" in order to provide the following details:
The meteor, which had a starting size of only 20 to 30 cm, was traveling at 45 km/s when it reached the earth's atmosphere at a height of 122 km. It descended all the way to Portugal's northwest before it "hit the sea."
Some people were afraid that the meteor might have caused a tsunami, however this was false because by the time it hit the earth's surface, it would have just been small pieces of rock.
The "blue color" of the light flash that the witnesses saw indicates that magnesium was present in the rock.
In today's famous newspaper Correio da Manhã, physicist Carlos Fiolhais adds that meteors fall every day all around the world (no one even sees that they fall during the day). "There's no need to be afraid; the sky may hold surprises for you. The air acts as a wonderful shield when something falls.
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