Green balls of fire were recently seen in the skies of the southeastern United States and western Japan. These sightings have led skygazers to wonder what they were.
The American Meteor Society says it has received more than 700 reports about a bright green fireball on Nov. 3. The fireball was witnessed by hundreds of people in the southeast, stretching from Georgia northward to Ohio.
"This event occurred near 6:23 p.m. EST or 23:23 Universal Time. While processing these reports the feature that was most mentioned was the vivid green color mentioned by many witnesses," the group reports.
Bill Cooke, NASA's head of Meteoroid Environments Office in Huntsville, Ala., suggests that there were two separate fireball events. One at around 6:20 EST over the southeast and another at about 6:20 CST over the Midwest. However, the first fireball event was more significant.
Cooke revealed that the fireball over Chicago was comparatively slow-moving when compared with the one over the southeast and was probably a piece of space debris.
A similar object was also seen in parts of western Japan on the same day. Eyewitness accounts were reported in observatories located in areas such as Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Ehime.
Hidehiko Agata, an associate professor from Japan's National Astronomical Observatory, thinks that the mysterious object over the skies was probably a bolide, which is a fireball of a meteor that is bright and usually seen over a large area. Agata revealed that favorable weather conditions made the fireball visible to more people.
The Internet is buzzing with the fireball sightings. Many people have recorded a glimpse of the bright fireball and posted footage online. Others also took to Twitter and shared what they witnessed in the sky.
Meteor was straight overhead in Lexington KY heading due east. Burning green. Size of a bottle rocket here #meteor #whatdoesitmean
— DrewCurtis (@DrewCurtis) November 3, 2014
It still remains a mystery as to what exactly these fireballs were. In the meantime, check out a few videos of the fireballs over the skies of Japan and the U.S.
