Two very bright meteorites fly over Czech Republic
Prague, Feb 5 (CTK) - Two very bright meteorites - bolides - flew over the Czech Republic, one on January 26, the other a few seconds before midnight on Sunday, public Czech Television (CT) reported today.

It said that the flash of the bodies that entered the atmosphere was very strong. Last night it was one thousand times brighter than the Moon.

Several people saw the first meteorite in Bohemia and in Germany.

"The Earth collided with a piece of interplanetary substance and an exceptional light phenomenon that we call bolide was produced in the collision," Pavel Spurny, from the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, told CT.

The phenomenon has not been exactly registered and astronomers now want to find out whether there is someone who made a video recording of it.

Bolides were recorded in 2000 when also remnants of the body were found, CT said.

The flight of the bolide through the atmosphere last night was accompanied by a flash and a strong rumble.

Astronomers have a sound recording of the bolide and they say that it may have fallen on Czech territory, most probably in southern Moravia, CT said.

Similar meteorites are found very rarely. "The Czech Republic has two of them, the United States has two, Canada has two and Germany has one," Pavel Suchan, from the academy´s Astronomical Institute, told CT.

ms/dr

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