Meteor startles Bangkok, provokes social media rumours
Bangkok (dpa) - A fireball seen over Bangkok during Monday morning rush hour panicked locals and prompted social media rumours.
The fireball was seen by residents throughout the capital at about 8:41 am (0141 GMT) streaking across the sky and exploding in the atmosphere.
The phenomenon caused panic among locals as some erroneously reported the downing of an aircraft, while others went to social media to say that the meteor had struck a helicopter.
"What was that fireball in the sky? It looks like a plane coming down?" one resident tweeted.
Others speculated that the meteor was a bad omen for the military government.
Experts, however, insisted the fireball was merely a common meteor.
"It was almost certainly a good-sized rock burning up in our atmosphere," Phil Plait, a former member of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Team and science popularizer, told dpa.
"It only took 2 seconds or so for it to go from being visible to it flaring as it disintegrated. It may have had a steep angle of entry."
"I don't believe in bad omens and events like this happen quite often, several times a year," Plait said.
