A scary fireball was seen in Lake Erie

SCIENCE: On Monday (Oct. 21) night, a bright fireball could be seen in the sky over Lake Erie in the U.S. and Canada. More than 550 eyewitness reports of the meteor were submitted to the American Meteor Society’s (AMS) “Report a Fireball” webpage; the object could be tracked moving from northeast of Cleveland, Ohio, to just west of Lake Erie, Pennsylvania. The event occurred around 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on Oct. 21. The fireball was reported from viewers as far east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Madison, North Carolina, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) away.

“It had a pale green color, but it looked like yellow/golden sparks were falling from it,” Brian F. wrote in his report’s commentary to the AMS from Ontario, Canada.

Fireballs falling toward Earth in this way are not entirely uncommon, but are still rare events to see. These are known as bolides and appear as bright streaks in the sky, burning explosively from the molten heat of friction generated by interplanetary bodies hitting Earth’s atmosphere. Peter Brown, a meteorologist and planetary astronomer at Western University in Ontario, Canada, posted a video of the fireball on X (formerly Twitter), captured by the university’s meteor network. “The bright fireball just after sunset was seen by many in southern Ontario and OH/PA. The meteor occurred entirely over Lake Erie, ending at an altitude of 30 km north of Ashtabula, Ohio, with the meteor falling into the lake,” Brown said in his post.