A flash in the sky Monday night was seen by hundreds of people from central to south Florida as a meteor soared overhead.
It happened about 10 p.m. Monday and, although just a handful of people reported seeing it from northeast Florida, dozens of videos were shared on social media and this meteor tracking website.
This dashcam footage (below) caught the large fireball streaking diagonally across the sky. In just a few seconds, it was over.
Almost 11 months ago, another fireball streaking overhead was seen by many around the greater Jacksonville area.
The description from many eyewitnesses included vivid colors followed by a streak just a mere few seconds long.
What causes the color?
Metal atoms from a meteoroid can give off different colors when it heats up entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Like sodium discharge lamps: sodium (Na) atoms give an orange-yellow light, iron (Fe) atoms a yellow light, magnesium (Mg) a blue-green light, ionized calcium (Ca+) atoms may add a violet hue. Atoms from the two most common gases in the sky, nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O), emit a red light.
Meteors, also called “shooting stars,” are small fragments of space dust particles that burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, but Monday night’s meteor might have been a larger meteorite.
Asteroid 2021 GW4 was predicted to pass 12,000 to 16,000 miles close to the Earth that evening. It remains undetermined whether the fireball was indeed 2021 GW4, but nevertheless it will be memorable for those lucky enough to see the spectacle.