In California, a meteor or meteors streaked across the sky, prompting thousands of people to wonder what it was they just saw.
Weather experts said that it was fireballs, or extremely bright meteors. Meteors are bits of rocks and ice ejected from comets as they move in their orbits about the sun.
Dr. Laura Danly, a curator at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, told CBS that what people saw was fireballs, or chunks of asteroids called meteroids.
“They’re flying into the Earth’s atmosphere and they’re burning up,” she said. “It’s kind of like when astronauts return to the Earth’s atmosphere and there is all that heat during re-entry. Same idea. These rocks are literally burning up. And that’s what you’re seeing.”
Southern Californians from Santa Barbara to San Diego reported seeing bright lights Wednesday night.
The National Weather Service said the sightings that flowed in about 8 p.m. Wednesday were most likely associated with the South Taurids (TOHR-ids) meteorshower that has been especially active in early November. Astronomers said the Taurids don’t bring big numbers of visible meteors but a high percentage of extremely bright ones that look like fireballs.
The American Meteor Society received more than 150 reports from witnesses. The bright flash was visible primarily from Southern California, but people in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah also reported seeing the light show, the group said.
The last time a fireball created such as buzz was on Oct. 30 when some 360 people reported seeing a streak over the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada.
Twitter lit up with reports of Wednesday’s sightings, though few if any were able to capture the streak on photo or video.
Comedian Eli Braden tweeted that he “just saw an absolutely INSANE meteor in the sky above Glendale, CA ... Either that or the alien invasion has begun.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
