Watch ‘giant falling star’ light up Kentucky sky on same night of super moon
.png "A vivid meteor made an appearance across Kentucky. Those who witnessed it said it looked like lightning and sounded like a sonic boom.")
Those who were awake around 2:15 am in Kentucky last night witnessed a meteorological phenomenon. If they were sleeping, they may have woken up to a bright shock of light and a rumble.
A meteor streaked through the sky on the early morning of Aug. 2, coinciding with the first of two supermoons in August. A supermoon occurs when a full moon is at the closet point to Earth during its orbit. This makes it appear larger and brighter than the average full moon.
Brandon Robinson of WYMT wrote of his firsthand experience feeling a rumble that he later suspected was the sonic boom of the meteor coming through the atmosphere.
People across Kentucky and nearby states described the meteor as a vivid streak of blue or green that lit up the sky like lightning.
One person compared it to a comet.
The American Meteor Society tracks sightings of meteors. So far this year, AMS has tracked 267 “fireball” events that have at least five sighting reports in the U.S.
Residents said the meteor’s passing sounded like an explosion or thud that had them thinking someone was at the door trying to break in, according to Robinson’s comment section on Facebook, where he posted about the meteor.
One Kentucky man described it as a blue light that looked like a Roman candle stick. A few minutes after it went by, he heard a sonic boom, he said, similar to reports from other residents.
It was “like staring at a welder,” he wrote on Facebook.
The annual Perseid meteor shower is happening right now, and it normally lasts from mid-July until late August. This year, it will peak on Aug. 13, according to NASA. The Perseid shower “is considered the best meteor shower of the year,” astronomers say.
“With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth’s atmosphere,” according to NASA.
It’s possible the meteor that came through Kentucky was part of the Perseid shower. Normally meteors are hard to see during a full moon, but last night’s meteor defied that.
“I saw a giant falling star,” a Kentucky man wrote on Facebook. “I’m assuming that’s what it was.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2023 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Watch ‘giant falling star’ light up Kentucky sky on same night of super moon."