Washington, DC – A fireball illuminated the night sky on Wednesday, captivating observers across nearly a dozen states and Canada in a remarkable celestial event.
The American Meteor Society (AMS) began receiving reports of a luminous object traversing the sky shortly after 6:45 p.m. Witnesses described the phenomenon as unlike anything they had previously witnessed. Analyzing these accounts, the AMS believes the object to be a fireball and has triangulated its probable trajectory over Pennsylvania.
NASA clarifies that such phenomena are meteoroids entering Earth’s atmosphere, termed meteors.
If these meteors reach the Earth’s surface, they are then classified as meteorites. The agency notes that Earth is bombarded with about 48.5 tons of cosmic debris daily.
However, the vast majority of this material disintegrates before being visible to the naked eye. According to NASA, fewer than 5% of these celestial visitors withstand the intense friction and high speeds exceeding 25,000 miles per hour to impact the planet’s surface.