A bright flash that lit up the night sky in parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio Wednesday was likely a random meteor, according to experts.
Social media lit up with reports of the fireball that briefly streaked across the sky around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
The American Meteor Society said it received more than 700 reports across 15 states about the burst of bright light, saying its visible flight likely ended somewhere over North Benton, Ohio.
The society tweeted a compilation of videos showing the stunning event.
The phenomenon was most likely a random meteor not associated with any known meteor shower, the society’s expert Robert Lunsford told the Associated Press.
He said it only takes an object the size of a softball to create a flash as bright as the full moon and that Wednesday morning’s occurrence was likely larger than that.
The society said several thousand meteors streak across Earth’s atmosphere each day, with many occurring over oceans and uninhabited regions and masked by daylight.
It said the brighter the fireball, the more rare the event.
With Post wires
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