On Monday (Oct. 21) night, a bright fireball could be seen streaking across the skies over Lake Erie in the U.S. and Canada.
Over 550 witness reports of the meteor were submitted to the American Meteor Society’s (AMS) “Report a Fireball” webpage; the object could be tracked moving from northeast of Cleveland, Ohio, to just west of Erie, Pennsylvania. The event occurred around 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on Oct. 21. Accounts of the fireball came from viewers as far east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and as far south as Madison, North Carolina — nearly 400 miles (640 kilometers) away.
“The overwhelming colour was light green but there did appear to be yellow/golden sparks falling from it,” wrote Brian F. in the remarks of their report to AMS from Ontario, Canada.
Fireballs falling toward Earth like this aren’t entirely uncommon, but are nonetheless rare events to witness. They’re known as bolides and appear as bright streaks across the sky, explosively incinerating from the molten heat of friction from slamming into Earth’s atmosphere at interplanetary speeds.