Fireball Shooting Across Eastern US Reported by Hundreds

A bright fireball over the US East Coast caught the attention of hundreds, according to the American Meteor Society, which is investigating Thursday's incident.

Event #556, as Thursday's fireball has been labeled, streaked across at least 10 states from Ohio to Maryland and as southward as South Carolina. Nearly 200 people have already issued reports of seeing the blaze on the American Meteor Society's fireball reports page.

Several commentors remarked on how bright the fireball was, reporting that they presumed it was an emergency flare at first. Another commentor posting from Silver Spring, Md. said it looked like a nearby plane had caught fire.

"It was the largest meteor I have ever seen," another commentor wrote from Manassas, Va.

The American Meteor Society received 195 reports of the fireball from Washington, D.C., Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia on Feb. 27 a little after 7 p.m. (Feb. 28 at 00:07 GMT).

According to the American Meteor Society, a fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, usually one that is brighter than the planet Venus in the night sky.

Earlier this week a bright fireball darted through a similar patch of sky on Feb. 25. "The fireball was seen from primarily New Jersey but witnesses from Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virgina also reported seeing the fireball," the American Meteor Society reported.