WATCH: Giant fireball streaks over Canadian skies
Digital Reporter
Tuesday, May 17, 2016, 2:22 PM - Skies from Ontario to Quebec in Canada and Maine, New Jersey and Massachusetts in the U.S. were lit up around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning as a giant fireball streaked across the sky.
The event was caught on several dashcams and security cameras, with more than 140 sightings logged in the U.S. alone.
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In Maine, witnesses recalled hearing a a loud bang as the fireball landed. Some say their homes shook from the impact.
Social media lit up with reports of Tuesday morning's light show.
No injuries were reported as a result of the fireball.
WOW! Fireball seen last night from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Photo: Webcam | Mike McCormack. #Fireball #NHwx pic.twitter.com/CfGqkpH217
— Mark Tarello (@mark_tarello) May 17, 2016
WHAT IS A FIREBALL?
The American Meteorological Society classifies a fireball is as a meteor that's brighter than magnitude -4, roughly equivalent to the brightness of planet Venus in the morning or evening sky.
Bolides are a special type of fireball that explodes in a bright flash at its end, usually with visible fragmentation.
While fireballs aren't uncommon, it's rare for them to be so visible in the night sky.
"Fireballs happen all the time," astronomer David Lane told the CBC in March 2015, when a fireball was spotted over the Maritimes.
"There’s something like 100 tonnes of stuff that hits the Earth every day from space."
