Bright meteor, aka a fireball, over U.S. East on February 24

As of Tuesday morning, the American Meteor Society had received 90 reports about a fireball seen over Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania on Feb. 25 around 02:13 UTC (Feb. 24 around 7:13 p.m. EST). One EarthSky friend on Facebook, Shannon N Brannigan, wrote:

A very big fireball just lit-up the eastern seaboard at 9:14pm est. It was heading south from the Albany, NY area.

Did you see it? Report your meteor sighting here

Some on EarthSky Facebook commented that this was the second bright meteor seen over the U.S. East in as many days.

Astronomers call a very bright meteor a fireball. It’s a natural event that happens often, given Earth as a whole, a chunk of space debris that enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up due to friction with the air.

We hear many people say that these bright meteors, or fireballs are happening more and more, but there’s no evidence this is the case. In fact, they are being reported more and more through excellent online reporting services such as the American Meteor Society.

Bottom line: As of Tuesday morning, the American Meteor Society had received 90 reports about this fireball seen over CT, DE, MD, NJ, NY and PA on Feb. 25 around 02:13 UTC (Feb. 24 around 7:13 p.m. EST).