Irish astronomy group investigating after 'explosion in the sky'

BBC News reports that the group, Astronomy Ireland, are investigating the cause of the explosion and would like anyone who witnessed the event to contact them through their website, www.astronomy.ie. A spokesman for the group said that the most likely cause of the explosion would be a space rock or a satellite crashing into the Earth's atmosphere. The chairman of Astronomy Ireland, David Moore, said: "So far, reports have been registered by residents in west Cork, Kerry, Cavan and as far north as Donegal, thus suggesting that this spectacular event may have been witnessed by people all over the country." "In the past two decades there have been two major explosions in the skies over Ireland." "When we investigated these, we were able to conclude that one was a Russian military satellite that exploded over the country, and the other was a rock from space which we predicted would have fallen on Carlow and this rock was indeed found, becoming the last meteorite fall of the millennium." He also added that people shouldn't confuse this event on Thursday with the hugely bright star that was visible under the full moon that night. He said: "This was actually the planet Jupiter and it can be characterised by being by far the brightest star in the entire night sky."