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WATCH - #BreakingNews: '#MeteoriteZLAF9B2' falls in North West

───   JOSCA HUMAN 08:34 Sun, 03 Jun 2018

WATCH - #BreakingNews: '#MeteoriteZLAF9B2' falls in North West | News Article
The 'flash of light' captured on CCTV footage last night (Barend Swanepoel)

A local farmer near Ottosdal in North West has shared CCTV footage of what appears to be a meteorite hitting the earth at 18:49 Saturday night.


According to a member of a neighbourhood watch, who shared the video with OFM News on social media, they were doing night patrol in the area of Hartbeesfontein when they received reports from Klerksdorp, approximately 30 kilometres away. People reportedly saw ‘a light’ falling from the sky and initially thought it was an aeroplane.

He told OFM News that everyone came together and started searching, but shortly thereafter received the CCTV footage from Barend Swanepoel and Wikus van Zyl from a farm near Bospoort and Gardau, an area not too far from Klerksdorp. On the video it appears to be more like a meteor that has fallen.

What could have possibly been the same meteor was lighting up the sky in China earlier Saturday evening.

According to Itv News, witnesses were stunned by a dazzling light which quickly took the form of a “flaming ball” over Yunnan Province. The Yunnan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said it was a meteor.

Social media has also made mention of a meteorite that was discovered and given the temporary label – ZLAF9B2 – which reportedly slammed into the atmosphere over Botswana.

According to a physicist and Very-long-baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio astronomer, Marshall Eubanks, this is a rare case of discovery before impact.

OFM News last night tracked the path of meteorite ZLAF9B2, with a projected diameter of between 0.5m and 3,5m, as plotted by Bill Grey on Twitter.

It looks like ZLAF9B2 hit the atmosphere over Botswana. There are reports of a vapor trail seen there. Plot is from Bill Grey https://t.co/ylIPUgKPhY pic.twitter.com/pqxf1oACBi

— Asteroid Initiatives (@AsteroidEnergy) June 3, 2018">

This a developing story.

It seems now that the asteroid *did* hit the atmosphere and exploded: the very bright fireball repored over Botswana in https://t.co/EhmmN0JxoX fits the asteroid's trajectory perfectly in space and time as https://t.co/KRS0iDRd0L (View / Expand Messages / scroll down) explains.

— Daniel Fischer (@cosmos4u) June 2, 2018">



CCTV FOOTAGE: Barend Swanepoel and Wikus van Zyl

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