Dash cam captures fireball spotted across New England

BOSTON — Police dash cam video caught an awesome shot of a fireball early Tuesday morning.

The officer had been looking for speeders at an intersection in Portland, Maine when he saw the fireball around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

FOX25's Shiri Spear says fireballs are bigger and brighter "shooting stars," or meteors.  In fact, the criteria stipulates that it's as bright or brighter than Venus to qualify. It's vibrancy is due to the larger size of the debris burning up in the atmosphere.

There were over 150 reports of the fireball Monday night into early Tuesday morning, with most of the reports coming in around 1:50 a.m., according to the American Meteor Society.

>> CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERACTIVE MAP OF REPORTS

%

%

Most of the reports came for Maine, but witnesses from Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ontario and Quebec also reported seeing it.

Fireballs are not an uncommon phenomenon, it’s just lucky to get them over a populated area.  Fireballs sometimes even come with a "boom!"

Portland Police had a little fun with their Facebook post on the event, calling the meteor an alien spaceship that possibly had Stephen King's friends on board.

"I'm sure we could win them over with a whoopie pie," the post read.

Cox Media Group