Cameras have captured the astonishingly huge and brightly burning meteor that streaked across the sky of western Japan on Sunday, November 29. This rare phenomenon has caught the attention of television and social media in Japan.
As seen in the video, the fireball is burning so bright as it rapidly descended through the atmosphere of Earth. Many people have reported the rare sighting of the meteor, which only lasted for a few seconds.
According to the local media, the fireball is believed to be a bolide which is an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere. It is known for its bright terminal flesh that when it explodes it would create visible fragmentation.
Fireball Lights the Night Sky
According to MailOnline, NHK public television's camera in the central prefectures of Aichi, Mie, and elsewhere have captured footage of the fireball streaking in the southern sky. Also, a camera in Nagoya port showed the meteor shining as it falls down from the sky and then eventually exploding mid-air.
Some experts said that fragments of the meteor might have reached the ground after that explosion. The Star reported that the fireball is believed to be a bolide that was visible for a few seconds on the early hours of Sunday.
Takeshi Inoue, the director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium said that they believe the burst of light that entered the Earth's atmosphere is as bright as the full moon.
The social media of Japan went abuzz over this incredible rare sight, with some of them expressing disbelief of what they saw and some say that they felt the power of the universe within them upon seeing the meteor in the sky and explode.
Here are some of their comments:
"The sky went bright for a moment and I felt strange because it couldn't be lightning," said one Twitter user who saw the fireball. "I felt the power of the universe!"
"Was that a fireball? I thought it was the end of the world..." said another, tweeting a video of the meteor captured while driving.
Read Also: Serendipity: Photographer Captures Once-In-A-Lifetime Meteor By Accident
Fireball vs Bolide
According to the American Meteor Society, a fireball is basically a very bright meteor that is brighter than a magnitude -4, which is almost similar to that of the planet Venus in the morning or evening sky. A bolide, on the other hand, is a special fireball that explodes in mid-air and leaves small visible fragments.
In a day, several thousands of fireball fall down to earth but since it usually happens on the oceans and uninhabited regions of the planet, many of the are masked by daylight while those that occur at night, stands a little chance of being detected due to the low numbers of people noticing them.
Besides, the brighter the fireball the rare is the event because the general rule of thumb says that only about one-third of the fireballs belong to the brighter magnitude class.
Check out more news and information on Meteor Shower on Science Times.
