A spectacular fireball streaked across the Hungarian sky early on Saturday, briefly turning night into day in parts of the country with an intense blue-green flash.
The exceptionally bright meteor appeared at around 1.24 AM, shortly after thunderstorms had moved away and skies began to clear. Webcams across Hungary captured the rare celestial event, showing a bright object travelling across the sky before disappearing from view, Időkép reported.
Fireball as bright as the full Moon
The meteor’s brightness is estimated to have reached around -10 magnitude, making it an exceptionally powerful fireball and potentially comparable in apparent brightness to the full Moon. Meteors brighter than around -4 magnitude are generally classified as fireballs, according to Szeretlek Magyarország.
The spectacular flash was caused by a piece of space rock entering the Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speed. Friction with the atmosphere caused the object to heat up and glow intensely before burning up, producing the explosive-looking burst of light.
Its striking blue-green trail was particularly visible in several recordings. The colour can often be associated with the presence of magnesium in the meteoroid, which glows as the material is heated during atmospheric entry.
Seen across several parts of Hungary
The fireball was visible from multiple locations across the country. Footage from Lovasberény captured the object travelling towards the south, while cameras near Zalaegerszeg recorded its light shining through the cloud cover.
In Nagyrada, the flash was bright enough to briefly create almost daylight-like conditions, while the night sky over Zámoly was dramatically illuminated. Observers near Tokod also reported seeing the fireball disappear behind Hegyes-kő.
The timing made the event particularly striking: after an evening of thunderstorms and flashes of lightning, the skies had largely calmed before the fireball provided another spectacular burst of light shortly before 1.30 AM.
Your story. Your perspective. Our readers. Write for Daily News Hungary!
A rare spectacle caught on camera
Because the atmosphere had cleared in many parts of the country, numerous weather cameras were able to record the event. The footage provides a striking glimpse of the brief but powerful phenomenon, which lasted only moments but was bright enough to be noticed across a large area.
For anyone awake in the early hours of Saturday, the sudden blue-green flash would have been a spectacular sight – and for several parts of Hungary, it was bright enough to make the darkness briefly resemble daylight.
Watch more videos in Időkép’s article!
