A bright fireball streaked across the night sky over Fairbanks, Alaska, late Monday, briefly lighting up the horizon before bursting into a flash. The rare celestial event was caught on camera and quickly drew attention from residents across Interior Alaska.
The event occurred on March 10, when a glowing object raced across the sky and appeared to explode in a bright flash. Video shared online shows the fireball moving rapidly before fading moments later.
Fireballs are extremely bright meteors created when pieces of space debris enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up due to intense friction. Most disintegrate before reaching the ground.
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute said the phenomenon is consistent with a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.
According to the American Meteor Society, thousands of meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere each day, but only a small number become fireballs bright enough to be widely seen.
Interior Alaska’s dark winter skies and low light pollution make events like this easier to observe, which is why residents around Fairbanks occasionally report bright meteor sightings.
Scientists may analyze videos and eyewitness reports to estimate the meteor’s trajectory and determine whether any fragments could have survived the atmospheric entry.
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