Finns scramble to calculate path of blazing Arctic meteorite

18/11/2017 19:24

        Finnish experts are scrambling to calculate the trajectory of a blazing fireball that lit up the dark skies of Arctic Finland for five seconds in an attempt to find the celestial body.
        
        Tomas Kohout of the University of Helsinki's physics department says Thursday's fireball — allegedly a meteorite — "seems to have been one of the brightest ones."
        
        Kohout says the alleged meteorite produced a blast wave that felt like an explosion and could be seen in northern Norway and in Russia's Kola peninsula.
        
        He told The Associated Press on Saturday "we believe it didn't disintegrate but reached a remote corner of Finland." But he says any search plans for the meteorite must face the fact that "right now we don't have much daylight" — four hours, to be precise.