Multiple doorbell camera and dashcam footage shows green fireball in night sky

Last week, multiple UK residents submitted footage online that shows what appears to be a meteor-looking big green ball of fire hurtling across the sky, captured from various devices including dash cams, CCTV and ring doorbells. 

The Somerset and south west areas of the UK beared witness to this phenomenon on the 12 May at 00:39 GMT, with over 250 people having so far reported the event to the UK Meteor Network (UKMON) to help track its trajectory.

•  Looking for the best dash cam?

During the late night of Thursday 12 May, a green streak of light was seen darting across the night sky, witnessed no doubt by thousands of South West England residents, with confirmed sightings in Hertfordshire, South Wales, Hastings, Devon, Bristol, Oxfordshire, Dorking, and West Sussex. Multiple reports of the sighting were shared to networks including the UK Meteor Network, the UK Fireball Alliance and of course, social media. 

According to Twitter, it's being speculated that any fallen remains of the meteor have likely ended up in the Bristol Channel, with hobbyists and the UKMON attempting to calculate the predicted trajectory of the meteorite fall. The green color of the fireball may assist in deciphering the composition of the meteoroid, with UKMON suggesting its color may imply a higher magnesium content.

People have reported the event through UKMON's website, after capturing images and footage most commonly on their video doorbells, with few instances recorded using vehicle dash cams (see video below).

The astronomical event was also detected by Fripon (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network) and the GFO (Global Fireball Observatory) camera systems. The below tweet from @ShamBaig shows an amazing video of the green meteor captured by a doorbell camera in Slough, Berkshire.

The meteor's brief Wednesday night through Thursday morning flightpath is said to have panned across an area as wide as from Manchester all the way down to Cornwall. UKMON say the meteor actually entered the Earth's atmosphere over areas of Somerset, UK. UKMON founder, Richard Kacerek, said that their cameras picked up "a very large meteor event that we call a fireball".

The UK Meteor Network runs 153 detection cameras to detect and record the passing of fireballs and meteors all over the UK, it said the fireball was picked up by fifteen of its cameras.

Preliminary analysis gathered so far from UKMON data shows the terminal altitude of the fireball was around 30km above the ground, and had a velocity of 6.9km/s.

An alternate angle shows outdoor security camera footage from Croxley Green, Hertfordshire, uploaded to YouTube captured from what is presumably a residents back garden. 

Wow! Were you lucky enough to witness this green fireball in action? Check your devices for footage from Thursday 12 May 2022 at 00:39am GMT, and if you happen to capture the phenomenal sighting on video then be sure to report your findings to the UKMON by submitting a fireball report to that will be sent to the International Meteor Organisation's Global Fireball Database.

• Read more:

Best indoor security cameras
Best outdoor security cameras
Best doorbell cameras
Best CCTV cameras
Best cameras for astrophotography
Best lenses for astrophotography
Best telescopes for astrophotography