Florida Fireballs Show Meteor Fragments Light Night Sky [Video]
The night sky was lit over Florida's East coast by meteoric fireballs on Sunday night.
Residents of Miami and Jacksonville reported seeing the burning fireballs at around 6 p.m. ET.
The Coast Guard in Florida received numerous reports from Miami to Jacksonville of burning fireballs in the night sky, according to News 4 JAX.
Thomas Webber, director of the Museum of Science and History's Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, told The Florida Times-Union that the Earth is struck by many small meteorites every day, but that the recent sightings were much bigger.
"This one wasn't grain-of-sand size, which what most of them are," Webber said. "When we get something a little bigger, that maybe has a silicate coating that ablates off as it travels though the atmosphere and takes some of the heat with it, they can appear much brighter and last a lot longer."
Thousands of meteors of fireball magnitude smash into Earth's atmosphere every day with a majority that fall over oceans or uninhabited areas, according to NASA. Many also fall during the day which makes it harder to see for those on the ground.
It is also rare that people are able to catch any of the fireballs on film, but many residents in Florida posted images and video online of the meteorite display. Those were able to see the fireball display are encouraged to fill out a report at amsmeteros.org to help for the research of meteorites.
The sporadic meteor event over Florida was harmless and much more common than what happened in Russia on Friday, when 1,000 people were injured when a meteor exploded near the town of Chelyabinsk.
There were no injuries or damage that was reported during the recent fireball display over Florida.
