Green 'fireball' meteor spotted shooting across the UK at 150,000 miles per hour

A green meteor was spotted flashing across the sky on Wednesday night.

Witnesses have described watching the green-tinged ‘fireball’ shoot over England and Wales in a northerly direction at around 9.45pm on Wednesday, The Daily Mail reports.

Some observers were convinced it was a UFO, and thousands took to twitter to find out what was happening.

Experts believe the meteor might have formed from debris from Halley's Comet.
Sightings were recorded in Cornwall, Hampshire, Lancashire, South Wales and Worcestershire.
Louise Darnell also reported the unusual event on the social networking site.

She wrote: ‘Seen the brightest and lowest shooting star ever! It was definitely a UFO..??’
Virtual Astronomer tweeted a picture of the ‘fireball’ taken over Wiltshire.

Many of the UK Meteor Network’s cameras, including AllSky Cameras at the University of Hertfordshire, caught footage of the shooting star on their cameras in Clanfield, Ash Vale.

Reports suggested the meteor crossed Britain from the South East towards the North West.
Space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock said last night's shooting star, though unusually large, was likely to have been no bigger than a closed fist and would have travelled at speeds of around 150,000mph.

'When something like that hits the atmosphere, it burns up really brightly,' she said.
'What was unusual about the thing last night is that usually shooting stars are quite small.
'This was quite a large lump passing through the atmosphere so it made quite a large shooting star.'
She said the green or blue flame emitted suggested there was copper in the meteor.

The fireball would have been one of a number of shooting stars that crossed the sky last night, as the Earth passed through a trail of dust left by Halley's Comet - an event which occurs twice each year.
Stargazers can expect to see further meteors - around 10 an hour - streaking through the sky until May 20, Dr Aderin-Pocock said.
However, they are likely to decrease in intensity and will only be visible at night and when the skies are relatively clear.