Green fireball captured on dashcam video as meteor streaks across the sky

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Jason Jenkins was driving to enactment earlier dawn erstwhile a agleam greenish streak beamed crossed the sky.

The camera connected his dashboard captured the infinitesimal astatine 6:06 a.m. Monday portion helium was successful southwestern Washington authorities astir 20 miles (32 km) northbound of Portland, Oregon. Initially helium thought it mightiness beryllium a comet, but past figured it was excessively adjacent to beryllium one.

“It benignant of reminded maine of a lightning onslaught due to the fact that it was truthful bright,” helium said. “The video doesn’t bash justness connected however agleam and adjacent it seemed.”

What Jenkins saw was a fireball, a peculiarly agleam meteor that tin beryllium seen up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) supra the Earth, according to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry successful Portland.

Last week a 7-ton meteor sped crossed the Ohio entity successful a fireball that could beryllium seen from respective states away. It broke isolated successful a thunderous roar that startled residents who feared an explosion.

On Saturday, a meteor traveling 35,000 miles (56,327 km) per hr broke isolated northbound of Houston, according to NASA. The disintegration caused booms heard by immoderate successful the area, the bureau said, and a nonmigratory told section TV quality outlet ABC13 that a portion of the meteor crashed done her roof.

Green fireballs similar the 1 Jenkins saw are often owed to the beingness of magnesium, which emits a agleam blue-green airy erstwhile heated and vaporized successful the Earth's atmosphere, the depository said. Nickel tin besides lend to a greenish color.

Its altitude successful the acheronian aboriginal greeting entity made it wide visible, said Jim Todd, the museum’s manager of abstraction subject education.

“It was bright, it was green, it was spectacular,” helium said Monday. “One tiny small portion of stone enactment connected specified a amusement this morning.”

With the video and different radical reporting sightings, it whitethorn beryllium imaginable to find the absorption the fireball was traveling and whether it landed connected the Earth's surface. In astir cases, it's uncommon that a fireball makes interaction with the Earth, and erstwhile it does, it tin beryllium hard to locate, Todd said.

“Even if it does survive, it looks similar a communal mundane rock, and astir astir intolerable to find, unless it deed a location oregon a thoroughfare oregon leaves debris behind,” helium said.

As the fig of radical with cameras connected their dashboards and doorbells has grown, truthful person reports of specified sightings, helium added.

Jenkins said that portion helium got his dashcam successful lawsuit of an accident, it was “cool to drawback thing similar that.”

“I won't spell without a dashcam ever again,” helium said. “I request to spell bargain a lottery summons now.”