Los Angeles, Oklahoma and Texas stargazers received quite the show earlier this week. A blazing meteor soared across the sky Sunday in a mighty flash, earning the extraterrestrial object the scientific rank of “fireball.” Now footage of the magnificent moment is making its way across the internet.
As of Friday, the American Meteor Society observed 593 reports of the fireball — allowing them to automatically compute a trajectory for the fast-moving object as it burned through the Earth’s atmosphere.
Some observers compared the experience to the sound and sight of fireworks.
“I saw while driving,” Thomas of Austin, Texas told the American Meteor Society. “It was above my sunroof. I noticed that there was a bright light like the sky was lit up. I quickly looked up and it almost looked like a firework but going mostly horizontal. I noticed and saw while driving so it must have lasted 2 to 3 seconds.”
Maddie of Kyle, Texas noted something similar.
“There was a couple booms in the distance, behind our house,” she said. “It sounded like fireworks.”
Rudy of Cypress, Texas, simply said, “Coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The society’s automatic computation placed the fireball’s trajectory just over Austin, Texas — moving away from the coast toward Lubbock.
Some observers noted seeing the meteor break into small fragments before disappearing from view, a phenomenon that the American Meteor Society said is often classified as a special type of fireball.
“A fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky,” the society said on their website. “A bolide is a special type of fireball which explodes in a bright terminal flash at its end, often with visible fragmentation.”
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