Thai Fireball Mystifies the World (Thanks to Social Media)

It’s not every day that you see a ball of fire streak down from the sky. But Thais in Bangkok and outlying areas saw just that earlier this week.

Social media erupted when Thais who witnessed the fireball on the horizon were able to catch it on their dashboards and shared footage and images online. Although people in Bangkok didn’t hear anything whilst seeing the “Thai fireball”, residents of Kanchanaburi province outside the capital reported they heard a boom.

Naturally, people have been speculating as to what the fireball really was.

Was it a plane?

Was it Superman?

Was it other alien life?

Was it a meteorite?

According to Saran Poshyachinda, Deputy Director of National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, “there is a high possibility that the object spotted this morning… on social media, is an object from outer space…It looks like an asteroid traveling to Earth and grazing through the air and it turned into a fireball”.

Take a look at some of the footage.

Of course, some humor ensued as well.

Unconfirmed photo of the meteorite that hit #Thailand this morning tweeted by @tri26: pic.twitter.com/OAPITDt3gS

— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) September 7, 2015

We’ve got a bigger problem now… pic.twitter.com/KQOpCOLYkM

— c3opo (@c3opo) September 7, 2015

First contact coming soon?

Whatever it really was, it sure was an impressive sight.