Over the weekend, a rare daytime fireball meteor caused a strong sonic boom across parts of the United Kingdom and France.
According to Sky News, the sonic boom occurred at 2:50 p.m. local time on Saturday (March 20) and was heard in southwest England, Wales, and northern France. Most citizens thought the noise was caused by fighter jets at first, but the Ministry of Defence soon clarified that this was not the case, according to the BBC.
According to the BBC, a few people on Twitter said they saw a bright flash of light across the sky at the same time, and it was later reported to be a fireball meteor thanks to satellite images.
The meteor was a bolide, which is the largest and brightest type of fireball meteor, which would have needed to be "very large" to be observable during the day, according to amateur astronomer Richard Kacerek of the UK Meteor Observation Network.
According to Live Science, another massive fireball meteor lit up the night sky over the United Kingdom on Feb. 28 and was seen by a potentially record-breaking number of people.