Four Separate Fireball Events Reported Tuesday Throughout Eastern US

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Approximately 150 people throughout the eastern half of the US reported witnessing four large fireballs traveling throughout the skies during a 24-hour period on Tuesday, various media outlets are reporting.
According to Aaron Homer of the Inquisitor, a total of four separate unique events took place. The term ‘fireball’ is actually an unscientific term for a phenomenon created by a meteor, he explained. As the piece of dust or rock travels across the Earth’s atmosphere, friction causes the air surrounding the meteor to heat up and cause a fireball-like streak.
The first was witnessed in Florida and Georgia; the second was viewed by at least 77 people in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, and Kentucky; the third was detected by more than two dozen witnesses in the skies above Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, and Kentucky; and the fourth was viewed in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland, Homer added.
Mike Hankey of the American Meteor Society (AMS) said that three of events each occurred within one and a half hours of one another (between 8:30pm and 9:55pm EDT). He noted that it was “rare” for “multiple significant fireball events” to be reported during the same evening, and after an in-depth analysis, the AMS declared that each one was a unique event.
The organization reached that conclusion based on a review of the “time, proximity of witnesses and pointing data gathered,” Hankey said. He added that it was “likely” one or more of the fireballs were “captured on camera by the NASA fireball network,” and encouraged anyone who might have witnessed one to file a report with the AMS.
“Much speculation as to whether the fireballs were meteors or space debris circulated on the internet Wednesday. However, at least two of the four fireballs have been confirmed as meteors,” said Greensburg (IN) Daily News reporter Amanda Browning. “Whether the cause of the fireballs was meteors or space debris… people all across the country will have their eyes on the skies tonight, hoping to catch a glimpse of an interplanetary fireball.”
Earlier this month, at approximately 11pm EDT on September 14, another fireball was observed in the skies over the East Coast and Midwest, according to Doyle Rice of USA Today. The AMS said that it ultimately received more than 300 reports about that meteor, ranging as far north as New Hampshire, as far south as Virginia and as far west as Ohio.
“There were a wide range of colors reported for this object but nearly everyone agreed that it was very bright, bright enough to cast shadows. There are no major meteor showers active at this time so this meteor was most likely a random occurrence, not associated with any known meteor showers,” said Robert Lunsford of the AMS.
“For viewers located in the northern hemisphere, we are entering a period of elevated meteor activity now through the first month of 2015,” he added. “As the length of night increases, expect to see more meteors and possibly fireballs as the Earth intersects orbiting material left behind by both asteroids and comets as they circle the sun.”