SPACE ROCKS

Mystery Behind the Giant Fireball That Lit Up the Sky Revealed

“It seemed like daylight. For a moment, I didn’t know what had happened,” one witness said.

A throbbing fireball lit up the night skies this week, conjuring images of an alien invasion. Experts, however, say the dramatic scene Tuesday evening over Kyushu and Shikoku in Western Japan was actually an unusually bright meteor. It landed in the Pacific Ocean, head of Sendai Space Museum, Toshihisa Maeda said. “People reported feeling the air vibrate. It was as bright as the moon,” he said, per The Guardian. Speaking to local outlet NKH, one witness to the phenomenon, said: “A white light I had never seen before came down from above, and it became so bright that I could clearly see the shapes of the houses around us,” before adding, “It seemed like daylight. For a moment, I didn’t know what had happened and was very surprised.” The fireball is reported to have been visible for hundreds of miles, experts said, caused by the dust in its trail burning up in the atmosphere.