Incredible new footage has shown a large meteor streaking across the sky.
The space rock was seen flying across the sky in Portugal and Spain yesterday with reports suggesting it landed near the small town of Pinheiro.
However, it has not been confirmed that the meteor impacted the earth’s surface, with footage showing numerous onlookers watching it shoot over.
Meteor sightings are extremely rare due to light pollution despite experts saying about six pass over Earth every hour.
Those commenting on the video, which was posted on Twitter, described it as “incredible” and “wonderful” with many saying they had never seen one before.
One tweet in response to the video read: “I love the beautiful things in the universe like this and the Aurora are things that would or could kill us all almost instantly if not for the atmosphere that makes them stunning.”
Meteors heat up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere with that heat forcing the gases surrounding the rock to shine brightly.
National Geographic says of the phenomena: “A meteor is a streak of light in the sky caused by a meteoroid crashing through Earth’s atmosphere.
“Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun. Most meteoroids are small fragments of rock created by asteroid collisions. Comets also create meteoroids as they orbit the sun and shed dust and debris.
A large meteor could be seen scorching across the sky in Portugal
“When a meteoroid enters Earth’s upper atmosphere, it heats up due to friction from the air. The heat causes gases around the meteoroid to glow brightly, and a meteor appears.
“Meteors are often referred to as shooting stars or falling stars because of the bright tail of light they create as they pass through the sky. Most meteors occur in Earth’s mesosphere, about 31-50 miles above Earth’s surface.”
The science publication says meteors can be visible from miles away in clear skies with the fastest ones speeding along at more than 40mph.