If you’re the superstitious type, you could not ask for a clearer sign than this.
Late last night, a meteor was spotted in the skies over Iceland. The object streaked briefly across the northeast portion of the sky at about 20 kilometres per second, before visibly exploding some 20 to 30 kilometres above the Earth. Also yesterday, the Icelandic parliament reconvened for its autumn session.
Iceland’s leading astronomy page, Stjörnufræðivefurinn, has posted two videos taken by Icelanders who were at the scene.
The first video was taken by Elvar Atli Smárason:
The second video was taken by Auður Óskarsdóttir of Breiðhólt, a neighbourhood in east Reykjavík, at precisely 22:48:23:
While Stjörnufræðivefurinn points out that the meteor was about the size of a tennis ball (or, to use The Simpsons’ measurement system, “no bigger than a chihuahua’s head”), the timing of the rare occurrence could not be better for those who believe in portents. How portentous the meteor is will bear out during the current parliamentary session.
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