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A meteorite over Britain has caused a stir among scientists and eyewitnesses.

Hundreds of people observed the celestial body on Sunday evening, the UK Fireball Alliance announced on Monday.

The fireball could also be seen in Iceland and the Netherlands.

Pieces of the meteorite probably fell to earth north of the city of Cheltenham, around 140 kilometers northwest of London.

Particularly bright meteorites are also called bolides.

These are mostly rock that rushes through space at high speed.

When it enters the earth's atmosphere, it encounters resistance and is braked.

This creates heat and light - this phenomenon can then be seen in the night sky.

Too fast for space junk

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Video recordings showed that the chunk was traveling at around 48,000 kilometers per hour, said Ashley King of the Natural History Museum in London.

That is too fast to be human-made space junk.

"So it was neither an old rocket nor a satellite."

The videos also made it possible to reconstruct the original orbit around the sun: the celestial body was mostly on the move between Mars and Jupiter.

“If you find a meteorite, take a photo of it and write down the coordinates,” said Katherine Joy of Manchester University.

You shouldn't touch the rock.