Weather

Videos Show Likely Meteor Streaking In Maryland Sky

Hundreds in Maryland and Mid-Atlantic states said they saw a possible meteor bursting into a fireball, and it was caught on video.

Hundreds said they saw what was captured on video in MD and elsewhere: a possible meteor bursting into a fireball.
Hundreds said they saw what was captured on video in MD and elsewhere: a possible meteor bursting into a fireball. (Image from a YouTube video)

MARYLAND — More than 300 people saw a possible meteor blazing across the Maryland sky and along the East Coast on Tuesday night (see videos below). Videos captured the possible meteor as it zipped over towns and apparently burst into a fireball around 10:57 p.m. on Tuesday.

The American Meteor Society said it received 360 reports about a meteor/fireball seen over Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Delaware, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.

People in the D.C./Maryland region reported seeing a meteor late Tuesday night. Social media users said it looked like a bright fireball streaking across the sky.

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The American Meteor Society, a clearinghouse for fireball reports, listed dozens from Maryland, DC and Virginia. Reports were also received at about the same time from other parts of the country.

The preliminary trajectory shows that the fireball was traveling from north to south and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, Delaware.

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Did you see last night's meteor? Tell us what you saw in comments.

Reports from residents in Silver Spring, Glen Burnie, Towson, Crownsville, Annapolis, Ellicott City, Crofton, and Easton were among the many Maryland meteor sightings logged by the AMS.

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day, the AMS says. Most of these occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and many are masked by daylight.

Here are some of the images captured of the meteor:

Includes reporting by Patch Editor Tom Davis


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