A few viewers and security cameras caught the flash just after 6 a.m. Monday morning.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Multiple people reported seeing the bright flash of a meteor’s fireball in the skies over Oregon on Monday morning, with several lucky enough to capture the sight on their security cameras.
According to Jim Todd, director of space science education for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, viewers from across the Pacific Northwest logged the sighting of a “bright green fireball” at roughly 6:06 a.m. Sightings are reported to the AMS Fireball Log.
According to the U.S. National Weather Service’s Medford office, a satellite placed the flash about 50 to 75 miles above Lake County.
“Due to the curvature of the earth, the satellite plots the flash more to the north and east of where it actually occurred, which is likely more over central Lake County,” NWS said.
Meteors are small celestial objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Todd said, and a fireball happens when a meteor is particularly bright — visible about 60 to 80 miles above.
“As a meteor travels through the atmosphere at high speeds, it creates friction, which heats the meteor and causes it to vaporize,” Todd said.
When a fireball appears green, Todd said it’s often due to the presence of magnesium. Nickel can also cause a green color when it burns away, but Todd said magnesium is the element most often associated with green fireballs.
Todd said that there is no major meteor shower currently occurring, but meteors have nonetheless been making headlines. In Ohio last week, a 7-ton meteorite broke up over Ohio, creating a fireball visible from Wisconsin to Maryland. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that a meteorite crashed through the roof of a woman’s home.