SHOOTING STAR BRIGHTENS UP KOREA'S NIGHT SKY

[Anchor Lead]

A shooting star was spotted all over the country early yesterday morning. It was bright enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye, because it was a bolide, a meteor much brighter than ordinary shooting stars.

[Pkg]

​[Soundbite] "Did you see that?"

A bright light with a long tail was spotted falling. It flashed suddenly before disappearing soon after. It was a shooting star observed early yesterday morning at 1:39 AM from a road in Gwangju.

[Soundbite] (VIEWER) : "I was surprised at first because I thought it was an airplane falling. But once I realized it was a shooting star, I made a wish upon it."

The falling star wasn't spotted only in Gwangju. It was seen in Seoul's Gangnam area... and in Osan, Gyeonggi-do Province. It was bright enough to be clearly visible to the naked eye. And it was quite big.

[Soundbite] KANG SU-YEON(OSAN RESIDENT) : "It was really bright. (Brighter than a streetlight?) Yes. I like looking up at the sky in the fall. That's when I saw a big bright light falling from the sky."

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute held a briefing and said the falling object was a bolide, a meteor that's much brighter than ordinary shooting stars. The Institute released a video captured on its monitoring camera.

[Soundbite] KIM MYUNG-JIN(KOREA ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE) : "Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system at the brilliant magnitude of about –4. A meteor brighter than that is defined as a bolide."

The research institute explained the bolide spotted yesterday poses no threat to people on the ground, as it exploded twice since entering the atmosphere, then disappeared or broke into tiny pieces.