Recordings of multiple sightings of the bright light also show the visible plume it left as it streaked down from the sky.
Social media lit up in Japan on the night of June 18, with Japanese users posting images of a fireball seen hurtling towards earth, visible for several seconds as it streaked through a vast stretch of night sky. Eyewitness reports came in from the Kanto and Tohoku regions of Japan between 10:50 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., with many posting pictures of the trail of cloud it left behind.
The plume, brightened by the light of the moon, showed the path that the apparent meteor took as it made its way through the atmosphere.
About ten minutes after the incident, the trail began to dissipate.
While a number of excited eyewitnesses weren’t quick enough to photograph the actual incident, reports described it as a greenish light which looked like a soccer ball hurtling across the sky. Fortunately, a number of drivers were able to capture footage of the bright light on their car dashboard cameras.
▼ This video footage of the fireball was taken in Yokohoma City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
▼ This footage, taken from the dash cam of a car travelling on the Chūō Expressway in Yamanashi Prefecture, captures the moment the meteor streaked through the night sky.
With a distance of approximately 130 kilometres between Yokohama and Yamanashi Prefecture, the fireball was visible to people over a large area. While officials are yet to make any announcement regarding the incident, a number of users on Japanese forums are confident that this was a meteor, citing characteristics such as the long plume left behind, the fact that it was visible to the naked eye for between one to five seconds, and the fact that it displayed a greenish hue, which suggests the burning up of the cold space rock as it travelled through the earth’s atmosphere.
Source: ITMedia
Top Image: Twitter/@herecomesdooboy