California

Mysterious fireball lights up sky over California, videos show. ‘Did you see that?’

Forty-three people reported seeing the fireball, visible here in the upper right corner, at 10:44 p.m Saturday, Nov. 23, the American Meteor Society reported.
Forty-three people reported seeing the fireball, visible here in the upper right corner, at 10:44 p.m Saturday, Nov. 23, the American Meteor Society reported. Screengrab from YouTube video

A mysterious fireball blazed across the night sky over Southern California and Nevada, videos show.

Forty-three people reported seeing the fireball at 10:44 p.m Saturday, Nov. 23, the American Meteor Society reported.

Sightings ranged from Santa Maria to San Diego in California and Sandy Valley in Nevada, near the California border, the society said.

Videos show a bright green fireball that appears to be heading down, followed by a flash of light.

“Did you see that?” a passenger asks the driver in a dash cam video.

“We saw it too ! It was crazy how big and green it was,” read a comment on the video.

“That is a bright one!” read a comment on another video.

The American Meteor Society did not offer a possible explanation for the fireball.

“Meteoroids are space rocks that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids,” NASA said. When the rocks hit the atmosphere of a planet, they become meteors and burn up.

They’re also known as shooting stars or fireballs, NASA said.

NASA reports about 48.5 tons of “meteoritic material’ falls on Earth every day . That’s roughly one-third the weight of the Statue of Liberty.

The Leonid meteor shower peaked over California on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18, McClatchy News reported.

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Don Sweeney
The Sacramento Bee
Don Sweeney has been a newspaper reporter and editor in California for more than 35 years. He is a service reporter based at The Sacramento Bee.
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