"Very Bright" Meteor Reported In Parts of New York State

While residents continue to gear up for New York state's first total solar eclipse in almost a century, the rest of the skies have remained very active above the Empire State.

Viewers were also treated to a penumbral lunar eclipse early Monday morning, for lunar and solar eclipses "always come in pairs", which are separated by "approximately two weeks.", according to Earth Sky.

The annual Lyrids meteor shower is also set to peak from late evening April 21 until early dawn April 22. And then there is the arrival of 12P/Pons-Brooks, which is more widely known as the infamous Devil Comet. This odd cryovolcanic ball of ice has been on a journey that has taken around 71 years, as it passes by Earth.

Another Meteor (or, Fireball) Spotted Over New York and Other States

Witnesses across nine states, including New York, reported to the American Meteor Society that a meteor streaked across the skies in late March. Connecticut Insider says that one witness described the fireball as "very bright and had a significant tail length.".

Fireballs are basically meteors that have entered the Earth's atmosphere, and are defined by the International Astronomical Union as "a meteor brighter than any of the planets"

Some estimates say there could be as many as 500,000 fireballs in our atmosphere every year, but a big majority go unnoticed. Many burn up in the atmosphere over uninhabited areas, or the ocean. NASA estimates that around 48.5 tons of "meteoritic material falls on Earth every day." Most do not ever reach the ground.

The latest sighting happened around 6 AM March 19, according to the reports.

Other Meteors Seen Over New York in 2024

There have been at least two other notable fireballs reported by residents in New York state in 2024.

Back in January 2024, a resident's Wyze smart camera showed a bright meteor streaking across the night sky above Chestertown in Warren County. Another fireball was spotted in February, as The Washington Post had reported that the trajectory algorithm estimated the object was traveling from "southwest to northeast", through "western Pennsylvania before it disintegrated in the atmosphere."