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A breathtaking video capturing a meteor zipping past an erupting volcano in the Philippines has ignited a whirlwind of speculation online, with some viewers suggesting an alien encounter. However, according to a leading scientist, there is a straightforward explanation for the intriguing scene.
The footage, shared by Afar.TV on YouTube, depicts Mount Mayon on Luzon Island erupting at around 10:30 p.m. on May 25. In the clip, a bright green fireball blazes across the sky before disappearing behind the volcano.
Shortly afterward, as the fiery glow of lava illuminates the volcano’s slopes, a smaller, white light appears to ascend from the vicinity where the meteor was last spotted, then vanishes from view.
The small white object immediately sent the internet spiraling over whether something had crash-landed and emerged from the volcano.
However, Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb told NewsNation on Saturday that the object seen after the meteor impact was unrelated to extraterrestrial activity and was most likely a satellite passing in orbit.
“The light coming up is most likely the glint from a satellite reflecting sunlight,” Loeb said. “There are more than 10,000 communications satellites moving around the Earth, so it’s not very unlikely to see such a thing.”
Loeb added that the white light seen rising from the earth had nothing to do with the meteor, and it was simply a coincidence that a satellite reflected sunlight at the same moment and location where the meteor struck.
Loeb also heads the Galileo Project, which searches for signs of extraterrestrial technological signatures, and noted that satellites pose a major issue for his work.
“They present light in the sky, and there are lots of streaks that are observed in exposures from astronomical observatories,” he said.
Another expert said the meteor most likely never hit the ground, burning up in the atmosphere before impact.
“It is possible, but not likely, this produced a meteorite,” physicist Peter Brown of Western University in Canada told the New York Times. “My bet, particularly given the prominent trail, would be nothing survived.”
Despite the alien theory being dismissed, scientists are still marveling at the rare sight of a volcano erupting and a meteor streaking toward Earth at the same time.
Planetary scientist and asteroid expert Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory told the New York Times that the sight was “aesthetically striking.”
“That massive volcano was briefly upstaged by the impact of something the size of a coffee cup,” Rivkin said.