A brilliant fireball was caught on camera streaking across the daytime sky over western New York and Ontario, Canada, on Sunday, with lucky motorists witnessing the live celestial fireworks display, Space.com reported.
The fireball may just have been a curtain-raiser for the Eta Aquarid meteor shower that takes place tonight.
On May 4, two well-placed dashboard cameras captured the light of the bright meteor, which could be seen from parts of Canada and New York. The footage was subsequently uploaded on YouTube, UK MailOnline reported.
"The daytime fireball video shows a clear view from a parked car with people chatting in the background," according to Space.com. "The meteor comes streaking down from the top of the sky at about the 22-second mark, with a clear outburst of light occurring at about 24 seconds."
"There was a fireball that came down and burned up," one of the people recorded by David Narciso's dashcam said after the fireball streaked through the daylight sky. "See that line of puff? There was, like, something on fire and then it just stopped."
Although the fireball may not be related to the meteor shower, it could be concurrent to the Eta Aquarid set to peak tonight (May 5) and into the wee hours of tomorrow morning (May 6).
"The annual shower happens when Earth passes through debris left behind by Halley's Comet. This year, the meteors will probably appear low on the horizon, but even if you don't have ideal viewing conditions, you can still watch the shower live on Space.com via webcasts from NASA and the Slooh community telescope," Space.com reported.
About 84 fireball sightings have been received by the American Meteor Society up till now. Sounds concurrent with or after the fireball streaked through the sky have been claimed to be heard by some.
"Oddly, this event, marks the third significant fireball in the last three days, following a relative slow season for fireballs so far this year," Mike Hankey wrote on the AMS website. "A large fireball with numerous sonic booms fell over Arkansas on Friday night. Another bright fireball was seen over North Carolina Saturday night and this daytime fireball over Ontario marks the third significant event for this weekend."
