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A huge ‘multi-coloured’ meteor streaked across the sky over millions of Britons last night, coinciding with a historic space launch in Cornwall.
Stargazers across England were stunned by the stunning natural phenomenon, which lit up the night sky on Monday.
The flaming fireball was seen flying over London, Sussex, Wilshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon, with some as far north as Wolverhampton near Birmingham reportedly seeing it.
The meteor was first seen shortly after 8 p.m., the Met Office said. Incredible video footage shows the shooting star bursting into a ball of flame as it burned up in the atmosphere.
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The impressive shooting star was seen across England as it burned up in the night sky. This Wolverhampton security camera captured the moment it soared over the city
The Met Office tweeted: ‘Reports of a meteor in the sky over the UK at the moment. If you managed to take any footage, we’d love to see it.’
People took to social media to post images they had captured of the rare event, many on video door phones or home CCTV systems.
A skywatcher in Bristol captured the meteor on a Nest CCTV camera at around 8:01pm, as it headed east.
The meteor was so bright that it startled stargazer Sophie Green, who feared the “world was ending.”
I saw it over Balham, South London. Bright orange, so low, I honestly thought it was a firework at first and then I thought ‘the world is ending’. Grateful to have seen it,’ she tweeted.
The huge meteor was first seen shortly after 8 p.m.
The stunning natural phenomenon lit up the night sky over England with its massive tail of fire.
In one video, the meteorite can be seen streaking across the sky, passing over a plane as it burns up in the atmosphere.
A woman from Chippenham, Wilts, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. She was standing outside waiting for an elevator to work when the sky brightened.
“A bright orange ball flew across the sky, it was amazing.”
Another person said: ‘It wasn’t just a shooting star, it was orange in the sky!’
One Twitter user said he saw a “huge white ball, red border, long trail of tail-like shooting stars,” adding that he “couldn’t believe my eyes.” Beautifull.’
Elsewhere, a woman said she had “just turned off my computer and looked out the window” before seeing an object streak across the sky, adding: “It was perfect timing.”
Sightings came from all over London, Hertfordshire and Wolverhampton, among others.
Laura, who did not want to give her last name, from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, caught the flying object on camera around 8pm from her front bedroom.
His video showed a light streaking across the sky over a residential area for just under 10 seconds before disappearing from view.
She told the PA news agency: ‘I had just turned off my computer and looked out the window, it was perfect timing.
‘It wasn’t like a shooting star that I’ve seen in the past. It seemed overwhelmingly close.
“It was big in the sky, orange with an orange glow behind it, not what I would describe as a long tail of a shooting star, but a shorter orange.
‘Then it just disappeared… It came out of the sky. It seemed like it hadn’t really happened. I tried to tell my husband but they didn’t quite believe me!
Sightings were reported from London to Devon and as far as Birmingham. Images of the meteor showed it burning through the atmosphere for several seconds before disappearing.
The meteorite was recorded by Sheffield’s weather camera as it passed over the city on Monday night.
A Met Office spokesperson told PA that the time of day and clear skies contributed to the quality of the sightings.
The spectacular natural phenomenon occurs on the same night that a modified Virgin Boeing 747 took off from Newquay Airport, with a 21m LauncherOne rocket attached to its wing.
But the Virgin Orbit mission to deploy satellites into space failed after an ‘anomaly’ prevented the rocket from reaching its target height.
In chaotic scenes, the team behind the ambitious first UK launch announced that it had succeeded in reaching orbit. But then, moments later, they said that an ‘anomaly’ had prevented LauncherOne from getting far enough into space.
History was thought to be made in the UK on Monday night when the first orbital space launch lifted off from Cornwall just after 10pm.
British astronaut Tim Peake called the outcome of the mission “disappointing” and said: “Getting into space is difficult and valuable lessons will be learned.”
UK history was made on Monday night when a repurposed 747 jumbo jet, named Cosmic Girl by Virgin (pictured), took off from Newquay Airport in Cornwall.
The rocket was successfully launched from the jumbo jet at 35,000 feet (about 10,000 meters) above the Atlantic Ocean towards the south of Ireland at 11:10 p.m.
But Virgin Orbit announced that the rocket failed to reach its target height on Monday night. Officials are shown sharing the devastating news.
British astronaut Tim Peake called the outcome of the mission “disappointing” and said: “Getting into space is difficult and valuable lessons will be learned.”
Matt Archer of the UK Space Agency said the second stage of the launch suffered an ‘anomaly’, the cause of which was under investigation.
“In effect, the rocket did not reach the altitude required to maintain its orbit or deploy the satellites and therefore the mission was not successful,” he told reporters at Spaceport Cornwall.
“Over the next few days, there will be an investigation involving the Government and various agencies, including Virgin Orbit, to make sure we understand what caused that glitch and, again, determine what to do next.
A redesigned 747 jumbo jet, named Cosmic Girl by Virgin, took off from Newquay airport at 10:02pm on Monday, after all commercial flights ended.
Spectators cheered and danced to the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up as the plane took off, with people hopping on their shoulders to watch the launch.
Named after the Stones’ 1981 hit, the mission involves a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.
The 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off horizontally from the new facility while carrying the rocket under one wing.
A video capture taken from Virgin Orbit’s live stream of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket after it was launched from a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named Cosmic Girl, 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean south of Ireland, as part of the Start Me Up mission and the first rocket launch from the UK
A repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named Cosmic Girl, carrying Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, takes off from spaceport Cornwall
The rocket was successfully launched from the jumbo jet at 23:10 over the Atlantic Ocean south of Ireland at 35,000 feet (about 10,000 meters).
The rocket carried nine small satellites intended for UK defense oversight, while others were for companies such as those working on navigation technology.
In a series of tweets, Virgin Orbit said: “It appears we have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information.
“As we find out more, we will delete our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We will share more information when we can.
Melissa Thorpe, director of Spaceport Cornwall, told reporters: “I’m not going to lie, it’s heartbreaking, we all heard at different times, so once we got together there were tears and it was very upsetting.”
She said: ‘I am absolutely devastated.’