CCTV has captured the incredible moment a meteorite explodes above the sky in Swindon.
Just after 4am on Sunday, October 25, a doorbell camera caught the moment the meteorite lit up the skies across the west country.
Terry Knibb, the owner, was unaware of what his Nest camera had captured during the night, and it was only when he checked the footage the following day that he found it.
After showing the footage to his son-in-law, Andrew, he confirmed it was a meteorite, also known as shooting stars.
Andrew told Bristol Live : “We bought my father-in-law the camera about a year ago.
“Normally it picks up just normal things, like cats and the post lady.
“So we were quite surprised when we saw this.
“Initially we thought it may be a firework, but it would have to be some firework and unlikely at that time of the morning.
“So I did some research which proved it was likely to be a meteorite.”
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.
Up to a diameter of about 10-meters (33 feet), most stony meteorites are destroyed in the atmosphere in thermal explosions.
Some fragments do reach the ground and such falls are known to cause property damage from time to time.
