‘Green shooting star’ streaks across night sky in 13 states, videos show. Take a look
A green-colored fireball illuminated the night sky, stunning viewers in over a dozen states, videos show.
The fireball lit up the sky around 7:30 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, Dec. 1, according to reports received by the American Meteor Society. The organization estimated the fireball’s trajectory as beginning in southeastern Ohio and moving east into southwest Pennsylvania.
Over 840 people reported seeing the fireball, the organization reported. The fireball was seen over Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The fireball was a “meteor produced by an asteroidal fragment approximately 5 inches in diameter with a weight around 3 pounds,” according to NASA Meteor Watch. The meteor moved at 34,500 mph and disintegrated before hitting the ground.
According to NASA, the fireball was first seen above Morganville, Ohio, and disintegrated above Ringgold, West Virginia, about 113 miles away.
The fireball had a green color, indicating it may have been a meteor, according to Chris Michaels, a reporter for WSLS. Meteorologists for WOWK TV and WFMY also noted the fireball’s green coloring.
“It was a beautiful green color,” someone from West Virginia commented on a post about the fireball from WOWK TV’s meteorologist Spencer Adkins.
“It looked like a green shooting star,” a Virginia resident commented in sharing the video Michaels posted.
Videos shared with the American Meteor Society show the fireball burning long and bright across the night sky. The fireball lasted up to 7.5 seconds, people told the organization.
This story was originally published December 2, 2022 at 10:16 AM with the headline "‘Green shooting star’ streaks across night sky in 13 states, videos show. Take a look."
