WEST PALM BEACH, FL --- A flaming ball of fire streaking across the sky had a lot of people scratching their heads.
Marilyn Silverberg saw it while she was driving on 95 with her husband. She says, "When it flashed in front of us it was unbelievable.”
Steve Silverberg says, “It reminds me of Armageddon when meteorites go into Manhattan.”
It was around 5 o’clock in the evening (the fireball was traveling west to east). Immediately they began guessing at what crossed in front of them.
"I know it sounds silly but you're not far from Cape Canaveral," says Marilyn.
They weren’t the only ones who were taken off guard.
Claudia Ruiz Levey saw it too. She says, "Maybe some part of an airplane caught on fire. I wasn't sure"
In the daylight hours, the ball of fire was like nothing many had seen.”
Steve Silverberg says, "It was like a one in a million type of thing."
The South Florida Science Museum says it’s actually not that unique. It wasn’t a man-made object falling from the sky, It’s a more common natural occurrence.
Elizabeth Dashiell of the South Florida Science Museum says, "A frozen tiny piece of meteorite that's made it through a few more pieces of our atmosphere than the actual meteors or shooting stars."
Witnesses say it looked too large and was too low to be o.k. Dashiell says it was hundreds of miles away and burned up long before possibly reaching earth.
She says witnesses were able to see it because, "To see it during the day just means the heat it was given off as it went through atmosphere it was visible to the naked eye."
And, the color is the result of the atmosphere reacting with what the atmosphere is made of causing plasmic discharge.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL -- Numerous reports of a large fireball in the sky were called into 911 dispatchers and our NewsChannel 5 newsroom Thursday evening.
Viewers reported a large green and blue fireball falling from the southern sky around 4:55pm.
Initial reports were a possible plane on fire in the sky but law enforcement officials confirmed no reports of aircrafts down.
Local astronomers believe it was a fireball, which is bigger and brighter than an average meteor.
There were no reports it made impact into the ground, which would be a meteorite.
The Geminids Meteor showers usually peak around this time of year and can be viewed to the east late at night.
If you have videos or photos you would like to share with NewsChannel 5, you can call our newsroom at (561) 653-5700 and email us at NewsTips@wptv.com
