A fireball sighting across the East Coast Monday night created a stir on social media.
The blaze of light was captured on Pete Czech's dashcam in New Jersey as he drove on Route 287 near the Route 10 interchange in Hanover Township shortly after 6:30 p.m.
But it was also seen from Maine southward to Maryland, according to the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit group that received 300 reports of the bright light around that time.
One person described the streak of light as "the biggest night light event I've seen," while another described a green flashing light.
Stony Brook University astronomy professor Fred Walter identifies the ball of light as a fireball.
"It's a small chunk of rock, bigger than a grain of sand -- because it was brighter -- probably no bigger than a few inches in size," he said.
The tiny rock was vaporized as it hit the Earth's atmosphere, creating the bright light.
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Walter said it was one of more than 40 fireballs seen by NASA Monday night alone. And while it may have seemed close at hand, it was actually 100 miles up in the atmosphere, traveling at 65,000 miles an hour.
The people who saw it, said Walter, were really just in the right place at the right time.
-- Greg Cergol contributed to this report.
