Amazing fireball created by meteor or space trance
«The lights came from all around us, like a massive explosion that lasted for some five, six seconds,» says Barents Observer’s reporter Atle Staalesen who came by car just north of Inari Thursday evening.
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«We were some 10 kilometers north of Inari in Finnish Lapland when the skies exploded,» Atle Staalesen tells.
«Driving in the dark, there isn’t much to see along the road. Then suddenly, the skies turned some kind of reddish, the bluish and finally exploded in a extremely bright white fireball,» the Barents Observer reported explains with enthusiasm.
This happened at 18.40 Finnish time.
«I have never seen anything like.» Stopping the car to see more, but it was again dark and silent. Nothing to see. No sounds, no smell.
Discussing the mysterious light-ball, thoughts went to fireworks, but this was way too massive. Maybe a failed Russian missile? Or a Finnish missile? Finland is currently holding a huge military drill in Lapland, but arms are there fired at a range east of Rovaniemi, some 300 kilometers south of Inari. Could it have been a plane-crash? Or a meteor?
Arriving home in Kirkenes some few hours later, regional media from across the northern Norway and Finnish Lapland reported about people calling in worried about the mysterious lights on the skies. Visible not only in Finnish Lapland, but all west to Troms in Norway and north to Finnmark.
Later in the evening, videos started to appear from around the region. Like the one in the top of this article captured by Aurora Service Tours from Muotkatunturi Wilderness Area in the municipality of Utsjoki west of Lake Inari.
«To us, the light-ball seemed to had its impact centre just northeast of our car, in Lake Inari,» says Atle Staalesen.
Other witnesses in Lapland were reportedly hearing loud bangs in connection with the fireball. «We couldn’t hear anything, but we where in the car,» Atle Staalesen tells.
Talking to YLE News, space physics engineer at the University of Oulu, Jyrki Manninen, says the glowing object which fell from the skies was likely a meteor. He bases that theory on video footage that captured the lights.
«It was probably a meteor, a fairly big rock,» Manninen says.
