Photos show moment a meteor fireball blazed through the skies over Horsham

Numerous sightings of the phenomenon were reported throughout the district - in Itchingfield, Southwater, Faygate and Storrington.

Many queried what it was - but three Horsham children knew instantly that it was a meteor.

They were getting ready for school at around 7.30 on Friday morning when they spotted the amazing sight through the window of their Horsham home.

Mitchell Press, 11, said: “It was just a big fireball. The bottom of it was really white and it left a big fire trail.”

His sister Abigail,14, shouted for her mum Nicola to look at it, while twin brother Harrison grabbed his phone and took some photos.

Other people throughout the area took to social media reporting the sighting and querying exactly what the blazing fire trail was.

“We knew straight away it was a meteor,” said Harrison, who is a pupil at Horsham’s Forest School, along with his brother Mitchell.

“It was in the air for about 30 seconds. It was going straight down.”

Abigail, a pupil at Millais School, said that both she and her brothers were interested in science and quite often studied the night sky while on family camping holidays.

“We know a few star constellations,” she said.

And the youngsters credit their dad Neil - a medicinal chemist - with their love of science.

And, as they could tell anyone who doesn’t know, meteors are space rocks which burn up when they enter the earth’s atmosphere at high speed, creating fireballs or ‘shooting stars.’