A rare burning green fireball was spotted shooting across the Pacific Northwest sky in Cornelius, Oregon, on Monday night, shocking residents.
It’s always eerie to witness an unidentified flying object of glowing light, but don’t worry—it’s not the aliens this time. According to Jim Todd, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry’s director of space science education, a fireball is essentially a burning space rock that’s made up of ice, stone, metal, or all three.
“Based on the video, it appears as a typical fireball—quick and bright,” Todd said. “Fireballs are caused by space rocks that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and are slowed down and heated by friction. Objects that cause fireballs can be larger than one meter in size.”
Todd received many reports from all over Oregon and Washington of people who have witnessed the rare sighting. Some suspected it was part of a larger meteor shower, but Todd dispelled those assumptions.
“A fireball is totally independent and random,” he said.
Think of it like a shooting star—but much larger.
According to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, “Fireballs and bolides are astronomical terms for exceptionally bright meteors that are spectacular enough to be seen over a very wide area … Ground-based observers sometimes also witness these events at night, or much more rarely in daylight, as impressive atmospheric light displays.”
And while they’re not rare to occur, they are rare to witness, considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Earlier this month, an asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere, but it was so small (and posed no threat) that no one even saw it. In fact, NASA didn’t even know of its existence until just hours before it entered our atmosphere.
These types of astronomical events happen all the time, simply going unnoticed. So it’s pretty cool those Pacific Northwesterners got an epic fireball—not the alcohol—show on Monday night.
The post Blazing Green Fireball Spotted in the Oregon Sky appeared first on VICE.
The post Blazing Green Fireball Spotted in the Oregon Sky appeared first on VICE.
