The final burst of light was virtually as vibrant as the complete moon. (Courtesy: Twitter.com / NHK News)
Social media was abuzz on Sunday immediately after a mysterious fireball lit up the sky more than Japan. Several persons took to Twitter and Facebook to share videos and images of the uncommon scene that was visible across wide regions of western and central Japan. According to reports, the fireball was so vibrant that it could be observed via closed curtains.
The fireball momentarily lit up the sky at 1:34 am (neighborhood time) on Sunday. A social media user mentioned that it seemed the ‘entire sky was lit up. Some eyewitnesses claimed that it made a ‘rumbling noise.’ The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan mentioned that it is standard to see a number of fireballs in a month but it is not really frequently when persons get to hear something.
Some think that the fireball was a bolide, a type of shooting star that is frequently compared to the complete moon for its brightness. “Shooting stars those are brighter than Venus are generally known as bolides,” Akashi Municipal Planetarium’s director Takeshi Inoue was quoted as saying by a report in Japanese news supply NHK. However, it is uncommon to see this type of brightness, he added.
“The last burst of light was almost as bright as the full moon,” he mentioned.
Earlier in July, a equivalent fireball was spotted in the sky above Tokyo. It was moving from southwest to northeast. The fireball was later identified as a meteor immediately after fragments had been identified in neighboring Narashino, Chiba district.
A report in Japan Times quoted the National Museum of Nature and Science as saying that the meteorite could be initially a handful of centimetres in diameter and in all probability broke into two pieces. Both the fragments had been analysed and isotopes of aluminum, sodium, and manganese had been detected. The museum confirmed that they had been component of a meteorite that fell not too long ago.