ROANOKE, Va. – If you saw a bright light in the sky late Tuesday night, you're not alone. It wasn't aliens, it was a fireball! Shaun Mitchell's NEST camera caught the light as it danced across the Roanoke sky.
A fireball is an extremely bright meteor, brighter than the planet Venus. The bright streak was reported across 12 states along the East Coast. The American Meteor Society says the fireball was traveling northwest to southeast over New Jersey and was visible from Vermont to Virginia.
Several thousand meteors as bright as the one that skirted the skies of Virginia enter Earth's atmosphere every day. Most go unnoticed, however, as they fall over the ocean or uninhabited areas. If they fall during the day, daylight would make them invisible.