Bright green fireball streaks across Southern California night sky

A green streak of light that briefly lit up the Southern California sky Tuesday night had people wondering what they had seen.

The American Meteor Society had 68 reports of the fireball that was spotted blazing across the sky at 9:39 p.m.

Sightings were recorded in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties and as far away as Bakersfield. Here is what a person there said it looked like.

“Very large, very bright, fast-moving vivid green ball followed by a shockingly orange/yellow fire tail. I’ve never seen anything that large, that fast, or that close explode out of the sky. We almost crashed while driving, we were in such disbelief.”

On Reddit, many people said they thought the object looked like fireworks, and that it was quite the sight to see.

Seleucian: “Saw it from Point Loma. It was pretty big!”

JoshieKona: “I also saw, can confirm, was spectacular.”

gear9242: “Yeah, it lit up the sky real good!”

RidiculousSN: “Saw it from the roof of my condo building downtown. Brightest and most consistent trail I’ve ever seen. You expect some sort of an explosion part way through but this one seemed like a sideways “comet tail” firework.”

matty_c: “Saw it in ob. Initially thought it was a firework. Blue. Streaked downward and broke apart.”

SeahawkTJ: “Saw it just as I pulled into Playas. The way the tail sparkled I thought it was really big fireworks. Very cool.”

According to KTLA, the director of the Griffith Observatory said the shining object was likely a piece of space junk that heated up and burned as it hurtled into the Earth’s atmosphere. Ed Krupp told the television station that the phenomenon is a common but rarely witnessed occurrence.

Baker writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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