On Monday (1st), at 9:26 pm (Brasília time), a trail of light crossed the sky on the outskirts of Monte Castelo, north of Santa Catarina, exploding at the end of the route. Lasting four seconds, the meteor (or “shooting star”, as it is popularly known), was recorded by the camera at the Brazilian Meteor Monitoring Network (Bramon) station in the municipality, which is operated by amateur astronomer Jocimar Justino.
According to him, it is suspected that the space object that caused the flash passed through the Earth’s atmosphere over Joinville, the most populous city in SC. Justino believes it is possible that other nearby states also saw the meteor.
What are meteors (or shooting stars)
Asteroids, meteoroids and comets orbit the Sun at very high speeds. Something between 40 thousand and 266 thousand kilometers per hour. When they reach the Earth’s atmosphere at this speed, even fragments as small as a grain of sand are capable of instantly heating the atmospheric gases, generating a luminous phenomenon, which is what astronomers classify as a meteor.
In summary:
- Meteors are just these luminous events, nothing more;
- A meteor is not solid, it is not liquid or gaseous, it is just light;
- Popularly, it is also called “shooting star”.
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Since most meteors are generated by tiny fragments of rock, it is not possible to predict when and where we might see them. However, there are some times of the year when our chances of observing them increase considerably.
These are called meteor showers, which occur when the Earth passes through a region of the Solar System full of fragments left by a comet or asteroid. When the Earth crosses this path, they hit the atmosphere, generating dozens or even hundreds of meteors in a single night – an eye-catching spectacle.
