Viral video of rising light after meteor quake past Philippine volcano sparks uproar
A viral video of a meteor speeding past a Philippine volcano has sent the internet into a frenzy after an unidentified object was seen rising from the earth after the impact – but a renowned scientist says there’s a very logical explanation.
The clip, posted by Afar.TV on YouTube shows Mount Mayon in Luzon Island erupting in the middle of the volcano at around 10:30 pm on May 25, when a bright green fireball cuts through the frame and impacts the back of the volcano.
Moments later, as the orange lava lit up the slopes, a small white flash appeared from where the meteor was last seen before disappearing behind the volcano.
A small white object immediately sent the Internet wondering if something had crashed and appeared in the volcano area.
However, Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb told NewsNation on Saturday that the object seen after the meteor impact was unrelated to extraterrestrial activity and may have been an orbiting satellite.
“The light that appears is probably light from a satellite reflecting sunlight,” Loeb said. “There are more than 10,000 communications satellites orbiting the Earth, so the chances of you seeing something like that are slim.”
Loeb added that the white light seen rising from the earth had nothing to do with the meteor, and it was just a coincidence that the satellite showed sunlight at the same time as the meteor hit.
Loeb also leads the Galileo Project, which looks for signatures of extraterrestrial technology, and noted that satellites pose a major problem for his work.
“They project light into the sky, and there are a lot of lines seen in exposures from observatories,” he said.
One expert said the meteor probably never hit the ground, burning up in space before impact.
“It’s possible, but unlikely, that this produced a meteorite,” physicist Peter Brown of Western University in Canada told the New York Times. “My bet, especially considering the prominent trail, would be nothing.”
Despite the alien theory being dismissed, scientists are still amazed by the unusual sighting of a volcanic eruption and a meteor streaking toward Earth at the same time.
Planetary scientist and astrophysicist Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory told the New York Times that the sight was “amazing.”
“That large volcano was briefly reactivated by the impact of an object the size of a coffee cup,” Rivkin said.
