A bright fiery meteor streaked across the night sky over the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, illuminating everything around it with blue light. The moment was captured by cameras at Fukuoka Airport, and Japanese media reported on the unusual sight on Wednesday.
Meteors are space rocks that hurtle into the earth’s atmosphere at tremendous speeds. Upon entry, they literally ignite, turning into fireballs that people call “shooting stars.” It was precisely this bright phenomenon that residents of southern Japan observed.
Videos of the meteor instantly spread across social media, garnering thousands of views and comments, with users expressing their amazement and admiration at the rare celestial show.
Just a week ago in north-eastern Japan, in Aomori Prefecture, residents witnessed a “meteor cluster” — a rare phenomenon in which many meteors appear in the sky at the same time. This occurred during the peak of the famous Perseid meteor shower, which is one of the three largest meteor showers and is formed from the debris of the Swift-Tuttle comet.
According to NASA, when meteoroids collide with earth’s atmosphere, intense friction turns them into bright fireballs that leave glowing trails behind them. Such meteors are not only mesmerisingly beautiful, but also help scientists study the speed of space objects, their composition and the processes of combustion in the atmosphere.
For the people of Japan, this meteor was not just an astronomical event — it was a small but impressive piece of space that suddenly appeared in their lives.
