Meteor hunters hope to track down remnants of fireball spotted over UK and Ireland

TREASURE hunters are hoping to hunt down a piece of a fireball spotted across the UK and Ireland.

David Moore, founder of Astronomy Ireland, said he and colleagues are collating reports and are due to issue a possible location for the meteorite this week.

If parts of the blazing space rock made it to the ground they could be worth thousands of pounds.

The fireball was spotted streaking its way through the skies over the UK and Ireland on Wednesday, November 23.

People reported seeing the meteor from Swansea all the way to Moray.

The only known visual evidence of the fireball was recorded by a dash cam in Galway, Ireland, at around 5.15pm as it blazed its way overhead.

Mr Moore is reported to have said: “We are meeting this weekend and we will collate all the sightings and try to pinpoint the trajectory and give a rough location of where we believe it landed.

“Particles of meteorite are very valuable. We won’t be looking for it ourselves though.”

The fireball was spotted by people in Belfast, Galway, Montrose, Dundee, Glasgow, Ayrshire, Skipton, Cumbria, Swansea, Merseyside, Alnwick and York.

Meteorite hunter Rob Elliot has made a fortune finding and selling space rocks.

He said: “If it was large enough to survive entry through the atmosphere and if it hit land rather than the sea anyone who finds it would have a very lucky day indeed – several thousand pounds worth of luck, in fact.”

The Society for Popular Astronomy said it has received more than 100 reports of the fireball and has been using these eye-witness accounts to work out the meteorite’s trajectory.

Tracie Heywood, director of The SPA’s meteor section, said the fireball started over the Irish Republic, crossed the middle of Northern Ireland and ended up north of Ireland’s coast.

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