Hundreds of people reported seeing a rare fireball in the night sky from Jacksonville to Miami, Florida, on Monday.
More than 200 reports were made about the bright object in the sky, which is believed to be a piece of an asteroid that broke up entering Earth’s atmosphere, American Meteor Society operations manager Mike Hankey told the Palm Beach Post.
“This is a special type of fireball that ends with a large burst of light and often a boom sound,” Hankey said, adding that the bright object is known as a “bolide” that blows up after entering the atmosphere.
Multiple witnesses reported seeing the fireball at around 10:15 p.m. local time Monday.
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Some witnesses reported hearing a loud noise when they saw the fireball, and others said they saw the bright light in footage taken from security cameras.
☄️ Incredible fireball videos from last night. A fireball a very bright meteor. This was captured in Miami by @thecollinlee! pic.twitter.com/5CTwGFvaZz
— Ric Kearbey (@RicKearbeyWTSP) April 13, 2021
NASA defines fireballs and bolides as “exceptionally bright meteors that are spectacular enough to be seen over a very wide area.” A meteor is what happens when a meteoroid, or a small piece of an asteroid, burns up in the atmosphere and creates a streak of light across the sky.
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There was some debate whether the fireball could have come from asteroid 2021 GW4, which was expected to travel close to Earth on Monday night. The asteroid was expected to fly between 12,000 and 16,000 miles from Earth’s surface, according to EarthSky.org.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, insisted in a tweet that the fireball was unrelated to the asteroid.
