A mysterious fireball was captured on camera in Thailand that halted traffic. The appearance of the fiery object in the sky sparked fear among its citizens.
Through the aid of technology, dash cams to be specific, the spectacular event was captured as the sky lit up over Thailand's capital of Bangkok.
According to Daily News, the object was seen as a burning glow in the sky as it sped fast the bright blue sky, similar to that of an asteroid entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up in the process.
Saran Poshyachinda, Deputy Director of National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, explained to CNN, "It looks like an asteroid traveling to Earth and grazing through the air and it turned into a fireball."
Bangkok Post also gathered from a former member of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Team, Phil Plait, who said, "It was almost certainly a good-sized rock burning up in our atmosphere."
"It only took two seconds or so for it to go from being visible to it flaring as it disintegrated. It may have had a steep angle of entry."
The unexpected appearance of the mysterious fireball in Thailand sparked fear among its citizens as some Thais dreaded it was the end of the world as has been foretold by conspiracy theorists. Some people came up with the theory that the object might have been a crippled aircraft, a piece of a satellite or even an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) or an alien aircraft. For others, it was a bad omen that spelled doom for the country or for the world.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thailand's Astronomical Society confirmed that the strange spectacle was called a "bollide" or bursting meteor accompanied by a clapping roar across Bangkok's sky.
According to Prapee Wiraporn, Society president, what made it even more extraordinary was its brightness and that it was seen during the day
"This is a natural, normal phenomenon because small meteors fall to earth every day but what we saw was similar to one over Chelyabinsk in Russia two years ago."
A similar incident happened in Russia in October 2013 when a 10,000-ton meteor exploded and scattered over a large area of the country injuring tens of thousands of people.
