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What was that fireball blazing across the Southern California sky?

A bright light shines in the sky on the horizon as seen from a suburban home's driveway
A fireball blazes across the sky, upper right, above San Diego on Friday night. Sightings were also reported in Los Angeles and Arizona and Nevada.
(Paul Green via American Meteor Society)
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A fireball was spotted last week blazing across the Southern California sky, according to the American Meteor Society.

The scientific organization recorded 18 reports Friday across Arizona, California and Nevada. People sent in four videos and one photo of the fireball.

Fireballs, also known as bolides, are defined by NASA as “exceptionally bright meteors that are spectacular enough to be seen over a very wide area.” The objects causing fireballs usually aren’t big enough to pass intact through the Earth’s atmosphere.

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Dispatchers last month received a 911 call from a Las Vegas area resident reporting extraterrestrial life in his backyard, about an hour after local police witnessed an object falling from the sky.

June 9, 2023

Meteors, or “shooting stars,” are the visible paths of meteoroids that fall into the Earth’s atmosphere at high velocities, according to NASA.

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