Brilliant Fireball Rings in East Coast New Year Early

A spectacularly bright fireball streaked across the East Coast skyline Monday night, and was spotted by more than 1,100 stargazers and evening commuters. One driver even managed to capture the incredible sight on camera, allowing those who missed it to see what all the talk was about.

The video was posted to YouTube by New Jersey resident Peter Czech, who was driving in just the right direction on the 287/10 interchange to see the incredible fireball blink in and out of existence around 6:34 pm at night.

He even later tweeted his Garmin Dash Cam's capture point, which helped confirm the American Meteor Society's (AMS) suspicion that the fireball was heading westward.

It is unlikely that the cause - a meteor or other space debris - ever reached Earth's surface after experiencing such a spectacular burn through our atmosphere.

However, that didn't stop the AMS from plotting the fireball's entry point and trajectory with 3D modeling, based on thousands of reports stretching from Delaware to Maine, and into upstate New York and Montreal. The geometric impact point is suspected to be South West of Carlisle, New York.

According to the AMS, a fireball is another term for a meteor that is generally brighter than Venus in a clear night sky (magnitude -4). Sometimes these events are labeled as "bolides," spectacular explosions in which the building forces of friction during decent suddenly become too much.

The last noteworthy bolide event occurred just last September, ending in such a brilliant flash of light that it temporarily lit entire neighborhoods in Pennsylvania. You can learn more about that incredible event here.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).