Americans have once again witnessed the beauty of the Cosmos flashing before their eyes and across the night sky on Wednesday evening at about 9:00 pm. A bright meteor or fireball ignited and zoomed at high speed, leaving a beautiful and sparkling light behind.
The meteor even qualifies as a “fireball,” as the American Meteor Society reveals. While all fireballs are meteors, not all meteors can be considered fireballs. A meteor has to be exceptionally bright and above a certain threshold in order to qualify as a fireball.
The fireball was mainly visible from St. Louis
Residents of St. Louis (Missouri, USA) seem to have been the luckiest, as the celestial event was mainly visible from the specific American city. However, Americans from other states also had the chance to spot the bright meteor flash.
In early July, we also shared the news about another fireball that emerged across the skies of New Zealand.
Seeing a meteor occurring during daytime is much rarer than one that’s seen at night. Here’s what Dr. Duncan Steel, a former NASA scientist, said, as The Guardian quotes:
In my lifetime I’ve only ever seen one daytime meteor. They are due to macrometeoroids in the atmosphere coming in very quickly, typically 30km per second. To be seen during the daytime it would need to be quite large, something the size of a rugby ball or bigger – that’s what makes them rare.
Experts still seem to be uncertain if any of the meteor’s parts that appeared above St. Louis reached the surface.