Fireball spotted over the Jersey Shore

If you saw a vivid object race across the Jersey Shore sky early Friday evening, you’re not alone.

More than 20 spotters reported seeing a fireball across portions of the Mid-Atlantic, according to a reporting log on the American Meteor Society website.

“Please tell me someone else saw the huge fireball streaking east to west across the sky south of Toms River a few minutes ago,” Nick Cittadino posted on Jersey Shore Hurricane News at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

It was also spotted in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

The fireball, another term for a very bright meteor, was described as a mixture of light blue, yellow, and white. It had a glowing trail, with light smoke, and broke apart in the air, according to the AMS reports.

An AMS “heat map” showed a cluster of spotters along the I-95 corridor in central New through the Washington, D.C. area and clusters near coastal Virginia and North Carolina.

The organization says “several thousand” fireballs occur each day, but they are rarely seen.

“The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them,” a fireball FAQ from AMS notes.

Read more about fireballs here.