VIDEO | Meteorites reportedly rock North West
People claimed on social media to have seen at least two bright fireballs striking the province
Image: Screengrab from Facebook video
At least two meteorites are understood to have fallen in North West on Saturday night.
People claimed on social media to have seen at least two bright fireballs striking the province shortly before 7pm on Saturday.
A local farmer near Ottosdal in North West‚ Barend Swanepoel‚ shared CCTV footage on Facebook of what appeared to be a meteorite hitting the earth at 6:49pm.
Swanepoel/Van Zyl Meteoriet By my pale op plaas kamera naby Ottosdal. Die meteoriet het naby deelpan geval volgens ooggetuies. #Meteor #Meteoriet #Swanepoelmeteor
Posted by Barend Swanepoel on Saturday, 2 June 2018
According to the Suburban Control Centre, one meteorite had fallen between Lichtenburg and Mahikeng‚ and the one in the video had fallen between Hartebeesfontein and Coligny‚ eNCA reported.
Michelle Starke said in a Facebook post: “We saw 2! And one was direction Johannesburg and one was direction Hartebeespoortdam... One towards joburg was seen 18:09 and the one towards harties was seen 18:40. Both looked the same‚ very fast bright and massive.”
Others reported similar sightings on Twitter.
Oh my word!!! Just witnessed what looked like a #meteorite flash pass us while driving on the west rand 🔥😱
— Candice Abrahams (@AbrahamsCandice) June 2, 2018
@cci_network i stay in mahikeng i saw that around 6 when i was walking back home but didn't see were it landed
— COOL KID🔞 (@LemogangSeboko2) June 2, 2018
There is a ~30% probability that a freshly discovered meter-sized asteroid impacted the Earth a few hours ago: https://t.co/JddW43BLPU = the statistics (with caveats), https://t.co/YWEg5l5mOM = where an airburst would have happened in case ZLAF9B2 had really hit the atmosphere.
— Daniel Fischer (@cosmos4u) June 2, 2018
Looks like it exploded over Botswana. No damage reported.https://t.co/j3kQcpdk96 https://t.co/KcQqLi0DYy
— Asteroid Initiatives (@AsteroidEnergy) June 3, 2018
A Johannesburg woman‚ Chiarra Chapiro‚ said she had made a wish on seeing one of the meteorites‚ thinking it was a shooting star.
“My husband and I were on our way to dinner at Chicago’s on Beyers Naude.
"When I was at the robot‚ I witnessed a huge shooting star‚ brighter than any other that I’ve seen.
"It was huge. Then a bit of the sky lit up. I thought it crashed and landed somewhere and my husband laughed at me.
"Now I feel cool that I saw it and he was the one laughing at me. I even made a wish upon that meteorite‚” she said.
- TimesLIVE
