It’s hardly news that multiple fireball sightings in northeast United States have become more than just rare occurrences. The latest of the sightings was actually caught on camera in the sky above Maryland, Virginia, in the District of Columbia by a driver – Alexander Salvador – via his car’s dashboard camera. He was driving in Falls Churs at the time of occurrence.
The recording was made at 6:17 PM and it clearly depicts a second-long footage of a particularly bright object passing through the atmosphere and seemingly ablaze for a very short time, before disappearing. The witnesses described it as being incredibly bright but immediately disintegrating into fragments and disappearing nearly as soon as it popped in their vision. Salvador described it as unnerving and startling as it seemed close to where he was when he spotted it.
The term ‘fireball’ is used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to describe a particularly bright meteor; normally, this happens when a strange object is literally set ablaze by passing through the atmosphere at immense speeds, creating a trail of fire due to the friction.
This is hardly the first time a fireball sighting is reported to the American Meteor Society, however. According to logs recorded by the website, there have been hundreds of fireball and meteor sightings in north east United States as of late, with another documented event of this sort being caught on a camera in Ohio as well.
There is, however, a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the nature of the object that was spotted this last Saturday in Maryland, Virginia. According to some scientists’ calculations, had that been a meteor, it should have fallen somewhere in south-eastern Canada. Yet, no reports of any strange object have been reported in either the US nor Canada. Neither has there been any confirmation of what exactly the spotted object was.
Judging by previous experiences of this nature, it may have very well been of human construction. In December last year, another mysterious streak of light was spotted grazing the night sky at immense speeds, leading people to believe it was a fireball or shooting star. However, upon close analysis and documentation, it turned out to be nothing more than a Russian SL-4 rocket booster that had been launched a mere two days earlier and was accidentally caught on camera when it reentered the planet’s atmosphere.
Similarly, other occurrences have turned out to be unarmed missile test flights or other system evaluation tests run by the military.
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