It was just about midnight, and the residents, including some returning from their late-night work shifts, in Delhi-NCR spotted what was a rare cosmic spectacle. A bright meteor streaked across the sky, leaving people mesmerised. But they were equally perplexed, with some wondering if what they had just witnessed was a meteor shower or some space debris.
Early Saturday morning, videos of the meteor zooming through the night sky, leaving a bright, glowing trail, started circulating on social media. After a while, it broke into smaller pieces, and each piece glowed as it fell, making it look like tiny lights scattering across the sky.
Although the flare was only seen for a brief period of time, eyewitnesses reported that it was bright enough to outshine city lights and called it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The cosmic phenomenon happened at around 1:20 am in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and was visible even as far as Aligarh.
But while many said it was a meteor shower, a query to Grok got a different response. Asked whether it was "a Bolide" spotted in Delhi, the bot said: "It looks like the bright streak over New Delhi was likely space debris from a Chinese CZ-3B rocket body reentering the atmosphere, based on predictions and video characteristics like slow speed and fragmentation."
"Some experts call it a bolide, but evidence leans toward debris. Official confirmation may come soon," it added.
Nonetheless, the video of "one of the brightest meteors" went viral, with some likening it to a "shooting star explosion."
"New Delhi witnessed a spectacular celestial event on Friday night when bright debris lit up the skies, leaving residents in awe and sparking a wave of excitement online," read a post.
Another said, "Just witnessed this incredible fire streak in the night sky. Looks like a meteor or maybe part of a rocket burning up in the atmosphere, nature's own light show from my rooftop."
"I was coming a while ago from my office with one of my colleagues and around 1:25 am we saw a meteor shower above the Delhi sky. We stopped the scooty and started recording this, not sure if it's a meteor shower or something else," wrote the next.
The American Meteor Society noted that the trail looked similar to a Perseid meteor, a type of meteor usually seen in mid-August during the annual Perseid shower.
