Ankara: The sky in Turkey’s Izmir turned bright green after a meteor crashed into the Earth's atmosphere in the early hours of Saturday (July 31). In a video, an object is seen streaking over the city of Izmir and it disappears leaving a green flare behind. This situation sparked speculations of the object being a falling satellite or an Unidentified flying object (UFO) among the residents.


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As per a video shared on the microblogging site Twitter, the incident occurred near the Turkish city of Izmir at around 2 am on Saturday (July 31). One of the videos shows a ‘meteor’ crashing to the ground causing a loud explosion and changing the sky’s colour to green for a few seconds. Another video shows the meteor flare in a bright greenish-white before falling towards Earth




The video went viral and surfaced all over social media platforms. Internet users filled the comment box with the messages praying for Turkey, some considering it UFO while many suggested it’s a satellite or some intergalactic junk.


However, a Turkish astrophysics professor Dr. Hasan Ali Dal cleared the doubts and explained the reason behind the incident. In a Twitter post, he said that the event known as a “fireball” occurs when a meteor begins to burn up in the atmosphere.




Dr Hasan Ali wrote: “It usually burns away in the upper atmosphere. It should be considered as a more specific version of the phenomenon known as a shooting star among the people and it often experienced during periods of meteorite rains.”