A Stunning And Rare Blue-Green Meteor Caught On Camera, Made Amateur Videos Go Viral

Be at the right place and the right time, is the recipe for witnessing anything.

And anything means pretty much anything.

In Portugal and Spain, citizens were mesmerized and stunned, by the sight of a bright light that suddenly lit up the night sky.

From the people who accidentally caught the moment on camera, videos show how a blue-green meteor that sped like a giant fireball.

And the internet couldn't be more amazed.

Many other videos shared on X, showed the meteor race through the sky.

For example, a footage of a woman dancing in the street has been outshone as a flash of blue and green passed through the sky above her.

Another video showed a woman parked on the side of the road, as the fireball passed by overhead, while others showed music festivals and people camped out on a hill to watch the meteor pass by.

“Legit!!! A once in a lifetime sight,” another social media user commented.

"This is insane," said an X user.

Others said that if the meteor fell, it would have fallen near the town of Castro Daire. Other reports said that it should be closer to Pinheiro, or Castro Daire.

News and media organization from Portugal also shared footage of the fireball taken from various locations.

"A meteorite lit up the sky of Portugal with a sparkling blue last evening to the surprise of the inhabitants who were outside at the time of its passage. Thousands of Portuguese people shared their reactions to the event on social networks."

"That’s no meteor, that’s Optimus Prime," a social media user joked.

The meteor was confirmed by European Space Agency (ESA), who caught the fireball with its cameras in Cáceres, Spain, at 6:46 p.m. EDT (22:46 UTC) on May 18.

The ESA confirmed that the fireball was a piece of a comet that flew over Spain and Portugal, traveling at a speed of more than 160,000 kilometers per hour.

The agency added that the meteor likely burned up over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of around 60 kilometers over Earth.

"ESA's fireball camera in Cáceres, Spain, spotted this stunning meteor last night! Our Planetary Defence Office is currently analyzing the size and trajectory of the object to assess the chance that any material made it to the surface," ESA said.

"Shooting stars" like this are pieces of material that break away from larger bodies (meteoroids) like asteroids, comets, the moon, or even other planets and enter Earth's atmosphere at high speeds.

Around 90% to 95% of these interstellar matter that makes its way to Earth doesn't last long enough to make it to the ground.

This is because the Earth's atmosphere creates friction that burns them away. And when that happens, they can glow brightly.

When they glow, they can appear in various colors, which depend on their composition and the speed at which they enter the Earth's atmosphere.

In this case, the meteor seen in Portugal and Spain, had that blue-green hint, suggesting a high presence of nickel and magnesium. It also had a blueish color, suggesting that the content of the meteor reacted with atmospheric gases they interact with, like ionized oxygen and nitrogen.

Green and blue meteors are relatively rare compared to other colors.

The most common color for meteors, is yellow. This color can make up the majority of meteor sightings.