SPOKANE, Wash. — This is only the second time in my life that I've seen a meteor flash this bright in the night sky. And I was in the right place, at the right time, looking in the right direction.
Walking home from work Thursday night around midnight in Spokane, Washington (because my car had a flat tire of all things), I saw the astronomical spectacle sometimes known as a "fireball," flash across part of the western sky low to the ground. It only lasted about three seconds. No time to take a picture, but I did tweet about the experience a minute later.
I wasn't the only one either. Several from Washington and British Columbia also saw the meteor fly across the sky.
Events like this happens when a somewhat large meteor or space debris falls into Earth's atmosphere and bursts into flames due to intense frictional forces. You've may have seen one of the many annual meteor showers, like the Perseids that peaked early this month. It's the same thing. But ones this bright usually warrant a pretty cool response.
So did anyone get a picture of it? I haven't found any yet, but I did check KREM's security cameras and weather cameras and they weren't pointing in the correct direction at that moment. Like I said, at three seconds long, it's too quick to pull out your phone and take a picture. So if anything got it, it was probably some kind of security or dash camera.
