[kellyhound]

Last Sunday across several northern Vietnamese provinces and cities, including Lao Cai Province witnesses saw a bright meteor with a long green tail fast-moving across the evening sky.

Dang Vu Tuan Son, president of the Vietnam Astronomy & Cosmology Association, explained that it was a particularly large and bright meteor, often referred to as a fireball. Its massive size explains why it was exceptionally bright and remained visible for longer than a standard shooting star.

There have been no reports of physical meteorite fragments being found on the ground. Experts believe the object completely burned up or disintegrated due to friction with Earth's atmosphere before it could reach the surface.

The distinct green or blue-green glow seen in the meteor's trail over northern Vietnam is a well-known scientific phenomenon.

When a space rock enters the atmosphere at high speed, intense friction compresses the air in front of it, heating the meteor to extreme temperatures. If the meteor is high in metals like nickel or iron, vaporized metal atoms strip away and glow with a distinctive bright green light as they burn.

The intense heat can also superheat the air surrounding the meteor. This excites the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere, causing them to emit a green aurora-like luminescence as they return to their normal state.