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March 9, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Stunning video shows huge fireball blazing over Europe<\/p>\n A large, bright meteor fell over Europe on Sunday, with some observers saying they could hear the rock\u2019s explosive descent from the ground<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/span><\/p>\n A massive fireball streaked through the evening sky over Europe on Sunday, showering at least one German town with debris and triggering an investigation into the size of the object.<\/p>\n The European Space Agency\u2019s Planetary Defense team, which is leading the investigation, currently estimates that the fireball was a few meters in diameter. Apparently the event was audible from the ground, and the fireball was visibly glowing for about six seconds. Falling debris from the meteor damaged a house, according to the agency, but there are no reported injuries.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n For comparison, a large meteor that fell over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, in 2013, was 18 meters in diameter. It exploded during its descent about 18.6 miles above the ground, showering the surrounding area with debris and triggering a shockwave that shattered the windows of houses, injuring many. Scientists estimated that it had the same explosive power as about 440,000 tons of TNT, according to NASA.<\/p>\n Because of the timing of Sunday\u2019s event and the direction the meteor was traveling in as it fell, the agency doesn\u2019t think any of the large-scale telescope sky surveys that are designed to scan for these objects would have caught it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear where the fireball came from; these falling space rocks are often debris from passing comets and asteroids. When these rocks enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere at speed, they burn up\u2014the bigger the rock, the brighter the burn. If any bits of a meteor survives the journey through the atmosphere to hit the ground, then they become a meteorite. Unless they are very large, meteors typically break apart in the atmosphere, as the fireball over Europe did on Sunday.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 9, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Stunning video shows huge fireball blazing over Europe A large, bright meteor fell over Europe on Sunday, with some observers saying they could hear the rock\u2019s explosive descent from the ground By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner A massive fireball streaked through the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[23666,896,8795,3384,871,7391,94],"class_list":{"0":"post-46249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-blazing","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-fireball","11":"tag-huge","12":"tag-shows","13":"tag-stunning","14":"tag-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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