Japan’s fireball meteor captured on camera

On Sunday evening, a hot meteor descended into Earth’s atmosphere over Japan.

The fireball was visible for a few seconds in the early hours of Sunday. Experts believe that small fragments of the meteorite could have reached the ground, reports the Associated Press.

Takeshi Inoue, director of Akashi Municipal Planetarium, told Japan’s Kyodo News Agency (via CBS): “We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon.”

The show gained massive attention on social media.

CBS reports that NHK Public Television, Japan’s public media organization, said its weather cameras stationed in the country’s central prefectures in Aichi and Mie captured the fireball in the southern sky.

The point of sale published this compilation of videos on Twitter on Monday morning:

In addition to the NHK and other news outlets, many residents of western Japan have also shared their own videos of the rare show on their social media accounts.

“The sky lit up for a while and I felt weird because it couldn’t be lightning,” said a Twitter user who saw the meteor. “I felt the power of the universe!” via CBS.

“It was scary,” said another who tweeted a video of the glow of light captured while driving.