Bright Flash of Light Across East Coast was a Meteor

The bright flash witnessed by people on the East Coast was certainly a meteor, according to media reports.

The American Meteor Society said that it received over 500 reports of the bright meteor that was seen at 8:00pm EDT on Friday evening. The fireball was seen by people in 13 states ranging from Maine to North Carolina.

"If you have something this bright carry over that heavily populated area, a lot of people are going to see it. It occurred around 8 tonight, there were a lot of people out, and you've got all those big cities out there," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environmental Office, reports Associated Press.

Although, meteors are fairly common, not many are observed as they occur during the day or at remote places on Earth. Last month, a meteorite explosion in Russia injured over 1,000 people.

A meteor making it to the earth's surface is a very rare event. About 99.99 percent of meteors completely disintegrate before research the surface, according to The American Meteor Society.

Though people described the meteor to be very low in the sky, AMS said that this was due to peoples' perception and that the meteor was actually several hundred miles away.

"Saw it around 7:50 PM driving south on Interstate 91 a few miles before the exit to interstate 90 in Mass. The duration was several seconds - very unusual. It streaked horizontally from west to east. Thought it was a plane landing. It started out white then glowed green with pieces falling off that appeared white or golden. I haven't seen a fireball like this in decades," said a witness whose comment was posted on AMS's website.