WATCH | Meteor 'lights up' night sky in Turkish city of Erzurum

A video captured by a passerby of a moment when a meteor flew across and lit up the night sky in the Turkish city of Erzurum and Gumushane Province in the east of the country is gaining traction on social media.

About the video

Onur Kacmaz who posted the video on X (formerly Twitter), on Saturday (September 2) was said to be in a children’s park in the evening when a meteor flew across the night sky briefly lighting up the clouds in a somewhat green and then red colour.

The video of the dramatic view which is said to have been caused by the meteoroid entering the Earth’s upper atmosphere and heating up, has since garnered nearly 65,000 views and over 230 likes with it being widely shared on social media.

Different angle

Another video which is said to be of the same meteor was posted by another X user with the caption “Another great angle of the green meteor spotted in Turkey about an hour ago.”

A report by the Abu Dhabi-based daily newspaper, The National, said that the meteor was also visible in the coastal city of Antalya and that it surprised some drivers along a rural road.

What is a meteor?

According to the American space agency, NASA, meteoroids or “space rocks,” are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids but when they enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors.

Additionally, meteors, which are made of metals like iron and nickel, emit a green colour when they burn through the atmosphere.

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