Police officers from Devon and Cornwall in UK have launched a huge search operation to look for asteroid debris after neighbors reported that they saw a mysterious glowing object to fall from the sky. Several local residents also dialed 999 after witnessing the incident assuming there could have been a plane crash.
After receiving the reports, local police deployed two helicopters to search the area. Later they mentioned that the search result showed it was not a plane crash but more likely to be an asteroid.
The search operation was launched after Plymouth police tweeted on Sunday, "Did anybody else see two glowing objects falling southwesterly direction out towards Plymouth sound? I know I have been up all night, but that was odd. Asteroid?"
After seeing this tweet another officer also posted a picture on social media that showed the mysterious glowing object which they spotted at around 5.52 am on Sunday morning.
As reported by Sun Online, an expert clarified that it was an asteroid breaking up after it entered earth's atmosphere.
Later, the Force Incident Manager for Devon and Cornwall Police said aerial searches were being conducted in that area to get a confirmation on the mysterious incident.
He also said that they have had further reports of seeing an object in the sky from some distance away with a trajectory towards the ground, with an item falling off it at some point.
But there are several reasons why the local residents panicked after witnessing such a mysterious incident. Recently a small asteroid exploded above the Caribbean and NASA had no idea that the rogue body was approaching.
Days later the US space agency mentioned that an asteroid, almost the size of a blue whale, called 2019 RA is heading toward earth with a speed of 3.5 miles per second but they confirmed that it won't hit the earth.
Meanwhile, astronomy experts revealed that an asteroid called Apophis, also known as 'God of Chaos', may hit the earth. They also added that this asteroid which has 65,000 times the power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima would leave a crater more than a mile wide and a 518 metres deep.
