A fireball that streaked over Colorado just after 6 a.m. Wednesday belongs to a class of meteors called "Earthgrazers," NASA confirmed.
Multiple viewers from locations including Denver, Boulder, Castle Rock and Vail called 7NEWS to report seeing the ball of light blaze a trail across the pre-dawn sky.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science's All Sky Camera recorded the fireball for approximately nine seconds.
"The available eyewitness and video information indicates that the meteor moved from East to West at about 45,000 miles per hour and weighed a few pounds (2 to 4 pounds are the preliminary estimates)," according to a NASA blog. "The fireball belongs to a class of meteors called Earthgrazers, which hit the Earth’s atmosphere at a very shallow angle. They can travel a considerable distance before getting low enough to completely burn up; the eyewitnesses state that this fireball lasted longer than 10 seconds, which matches grazer durations. No meteorites are expected to have been produced by this event – it was too small and too high to drop fragments on the ground."
Some 7NEWS viewers described the fireball as glowing green or white.
Huge fireball north to south west of vail pass this morning. Bright green flaming tail. Across full sky. #fireball#meteor#cowx
— Greg Moore (@GMoore34) March 11, 2015
Others said it was a ball of white light.
"There was a huge ball of white with flames shooting out the end going fast and low," wrote 7NEWS viewer Rikki Johnston in Denver. She said it was pretty large and was traveling east to west.
"I knew I saw something in the sky!! My heart just dropped because I couldn't stop thinking about what I saw!!!" Gabriela Quintero posted.
"The numerous reports are typical of fireballs occurring during morning or evening work commute, and are not indicative of the relative brightness of the meteor," NASA wrote.
Click here for more information about fireballs from The Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
You can report fireball sightings here: www.cloudbait.com/science/fireballs
