American Meteor Society
Last night was a busy night for the AMS: 2 very bright fireball events occurred less than 6 hours apart.
If you witnessed one of these events and/or if you have a video or a photo of these events, please
Submit an Official Fireball Report
If you want to learn more about Fireballs: read our Fireball FAQ.
Fireball over Germany: 60 reports from 4 countries
We first received 60 reports (so far) about of a slow green fireball seen above north Germany on Tuesday, April 16th 2019 around 21:50 Universal Time (23:50 local time – CEST). The event was mainly seen from Germany but we also received reports from Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Trajectory
The preliminary 3D trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to the AMS* shows that the fireball was traveling from South East to North West and ended its flight right above Hamburg.
* through our partners: Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. (D), the International Meteor Organization, Werkgroep Meteoren (NL), Vallendesterren (NL) and UKMON (UK).
Fireball over Delaware: Over 400 reports from 9 states
We also received 407 reports so far about another bright and green fireball that happened over Delaware the same night at 02:57 Universal Time (10:57pm EDT). We received reports from Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Trajectory
The preliminary 3D trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to the AMS shows that the fireball was traveling from North to South and ended its flight in the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, DE. It means that if anything survived, it’s in the water.
Fireball, Meteorite…?
Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.
Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.
I saw this last night here in Willow st, Pennsylvania..it was really bright and looked very close..
Hello! Thanks for the answers I had all night, “what in the world was that?! and was I the only one to see it?!” How beautiful! I am from new Holland, Pennsylvania and had a big open sky for the fireball to show off its tricks right in front of me.
I saw this yesterday in the sky and I’m in Puerto Rico my husband told me I’m crazy but I knew I wasn’t ….
Live about 20 minutes from Bethany beach in Delaware. Love stargazing but, of course, went to bed early last night-ugh….
Does anyone have a home video of this meteor to share joshuagoney@gmail.com would love to view it thanks
I saw a fireball tuesday night around 11:00 pm in maine. Looked very close and was very bright.
We saw a huge flaming meteor over the York River in Williamsburg, Virginia. We have a window wall facing the river and a flaming, elongated streak passed almost horizontally across all the windows. It had a slight downward trajectory and passed out of our view so we didn’t see it hit the ground or burn out. At first I thought it was a plane engulfed with flames, but it seemed larger than a plane; I called 911 just in case.
I saw this fireball on my way home from work in Princess Anne, Maryland. It happened around 10:50pm it was a very bright light like a fast ball of fire and seemed really close to me just above the trees. I live about 41 miles from Bethany Beach Delaware where the fireball reportedly went down in the ocean.
Saw this around Tuesday night around 11 Pm in Wilmington, NC. Was driving home going over a tall highway bridge and the sky was clear as day. Saw a bright greenlight shooting downward across the sky and finally died out. It was awesome!!!
Last night around 2 3 am Knoxville TN .. we had A strong and out of nowhere storm come through with extra high wind.. for like 15 min.. there was a bright neon green flash first to appear and then 5 min later a extremely neon blue lit up the sky for 2 seconds it seemed .. extremely bright abnormal colors. There was. 3rd round too. It knocked out the street lights for a bit too and wasn’t lightening.. not sure what it was though so maybe someone knows on here
Omg!! My boyfriend and I saw it Tuesday night (April 16th) here in southwest Florida while we were on our way home. I couldn’t take a pic since I was driving. It was bright green light and then it just disappear across the sky…it was awesome!!!
Omg!! My boyfriend and I saw it Tuesday night (April 16th) here in southwest Florida while we were on our way home. I couldn’t take a pic since I was driving. It was bright green light and then it just disappear across the sky…it was awesome!!!
I am truly thankful to the holder of this web page who has shared this enormous article at
at this place.
I live in Williamsburg Virginia and as far I know, I’m the only person that was out that night and saw it… Still don’t know what to believe as I was facing south-southwest and this was supposed to have been north of me… No matter what though, it was an incredible sight to see.
I’m writing this May 11th from Ohio. I was down by Lake Erie at 1:00am and saw a close, slow moving bright green meteor with a pinkish trail. I’ve never seen that before.
Hello! I saw this last night in edgewater night over the nyc skyline! So bright and had a purple glow. Don’t know if it was what everyone else saw but I’ve been asking around and searching… no reports elsewhere. The sighting was at about 10:30pm right alongside the moon ! Fascinating !!
Hello all, at the time I did not know where to report this. Every so often I checked the internet for any other witnesses to this sighting. Tonight 0902/23 I found this site.
As it goes my wife and I had recently moved to Heritage Hills in Somers, NY. Heritage Hills is a large development built around an 18 and 9 hole golf course in northern Westchester County, NY. So in the early evening on or about 04/13/23 I was walking my dog through the 18 hole course. I happened to notice a huge fireball soaring by. It only lasted seconds as it burned up and disappeared before hitting ground. An incredible sight.