A dazzling fireball careering through the night sky in Japan has been caught on several cameras.
Witnesses reported seeing a soundless bright light illuminate the sky for a few seconds as it shot down to Earth with a greenish glow.
An expert believes it is likely the fireball was a tiny chunk of space rock burning up in our atmosphere.
A dazzling fireball careering through the night sky in Japan has been caught on several cameras. Witnesses reported seeing a soundless bright light illuminate the sky for a few seconds as it shot down to earth with a greenish glow
It first appeared as a tiny orb, before blossoming into a massive flash that illuminated the night sky.
The remarkable object was spotted by numerous people when it fell to Earth on the 21 November, with reports received in both Yoshitaka and Syouko in southern Japan.
It flashed a few times before vanishing as it fell to Earth at around 9.30pm, according to The Asashi Shimbun.
‘Such brightness could be observed only a handful of times in any given year’, said Yasuo Shiba, an executive of Nippon Meteor Society.
‘It lit up for about three seconds. It is almost certainly a fireball,’ said Mr Shiba, who observed the event.
He believes the object was likely part of the Taurids meteor shower observed in October and November.
Each year, from the end of October, the skies play host to the meteor shower, dubbed ‘nature’s fireworks’.
The Taurids display is created by debris left behind by Encke’s comet, named after the astronomer who discovered it’s annual trajectory in 1819.
The fireball first appears as a tiny orb in the night sky, before blossoming (circled in red) into a massive flash that illuminates the night sky
During the shower, streaks of light, or ‘shooting stars’ can be seen across the sky, caused by grains of dust and ice shed by a comet that entered the atmosphere at 37 miles per second (60 km/s).
As they hit the atmosphere, friction causes them to burn up as they heat the air around them, causing the trails to be seen from the ground.
‘It’s a fireball … a big meteor,’ confirmed Chisato Yamauchi, a researcher at Misato astronomical observatory in Wakayama Prefecture.
‘Fragments of sand and stone moving through space lit up due to friction upon entering Earth’s atmosphere,’ he explained.
Last week a similar bright flash tore across the sky in Phoenix.
The remarkable object was spotted by numerous people in the area, with reports streaming in from Arizona and the surrounding states, including California , Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.
The remarkable object was spotted by numerous people when it fell to Earth on the 21 November, with reports received in both Yoshitaka and Syouko in southern Japan
Last week a similar bright flash tore across the sky in Phoenix. The remarkable object was spotted by numerous people in the area, with reports streaming in from Arizona and the surrounding states
‘Something BRILLIANT just flew across the Phoenix sky around 8:30 this evening!’ the City of Phoenix, AZ tweeted last night.
‘Check out what our Phoenix City Cam Captured! Look to the right of this screen.’
The stunning video, captured with a Nest security camera, shows the moment an object appears over the city.
According to the American Meteor Society, this week alone has several sources of meteoric activity, leading to fireball sightings all around the world.
In the span of just ten hours between Nov 14 and 15, there were four major sightings, with events in France and Germany, as well as two parts of the US.