{"id":405777,"date":"2026-04-30T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/405777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:28:10","slug":"large-bright-fireball-lights-up-pacific-northwest-sky-see-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/405777\/","title":{"rendered":"Large bright fireball lights up Pacific Northwest sky. See videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bright fireball<\/a> cut across the night sky over the Pacific Northwest early April 29, drawing more than 150 reports from people across Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.<\/p>\n

At least 151 sightings<\/a> were logged after a large streak of light was spotted shortly after midnight, according to the American Meteor Society.<\/p>\n

Based on eyewitness reports and video submissions, the meteor was determined to be traveling southwest at an estimated 66,000 miles per hour before breaking apart over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Earth<\/p>\n

Earth will soon pass through the debris left behind by Halley\u2019s Comet (shown), producing the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.<\/p>\n

Observers described a vivid display, with flashes of orange, blue and even green lighting up the sky as the object fragmented.<\/p>\n

According to the Meteor Society, those colors are typically tied to the meteor\u2019s chemical makeup and the way it interacts with Earth\u2019s atmosphere at high altitude.<\/p>\n

While the Lyrid meteor shower<\/a> is still active through the end of April, this event was likely a sporadic meteor, which means it was not connected to any known meteor shower, said Jim Todd, OMSI’s director of space science education.<\/p>\n

The American Meteor Society continues to collect reports and video from the event, helping researchers better understand the object\u2019s path and composition.<\/p>\n

Anyone who saw the event or has video footage is encouraged to submit it to American Meteor Society Fireball Log at fireball.amsmeteors.org\/members\/imo_view\/event\/2026\/3168<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ginnie Sandoval is the Oregon Connect reporter for the Statesman Journal. Sandoval is a lifelong Oregonian who covers trending news, entertainment, food and outdoors. She can be reached at\u00a0GSandoval@statesmanjournal.com<\/a>\u00a0or on X at @GinnieSandoval<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Meteor streaks across Oregon and Washington skies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bright fireball cut across the night sky over the Pacific Northwest early April 29, drawing more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[172096,208963,111,139,69,46679,147,392],"class_list":["post-405777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-american-meteor-society","tag-meteor-society","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pacific-northwest","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}