More than three dozen people reported seeing a bright blue fireball streak across the sky early Sunday morning, primarily over Colorado.
According to the American Meteor Society, the phenomenon was also witnessed in Wyoming and New Mexico, and 12 people submitted videos to the nonprofit organization, CBS News reported.
One video - captured by a Commerce City, Colorado, doorbell camera - shows the fireball drop from the sky in a “blue blaze,” the network reported.
While the meteor was primarily visible above the Denver area at around 4:30 a.m. CDT, observers reported the sighting as far south as Santa Fe, New Mexico, roughly 400 miles away, Space.com reported.
Chris Peterson, who works at the Cloudbait Observatory in the central Colorado Rocky Mountains, told CBS News that the fireball spotted on Sunday was “descending very deep.”
“Ten or 20 miles may not seem very close to the ground, but when we think about typical burning stars, we’re seeing things that are burning up 60 to 70 miles high,” he told the network.
According to Space.com, fireballs result from somewhat larger meteors that strike the Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, and a meteor society employee told KCNC-TV in Denver that about six people described hearing a boom during Sunday’s sighting over Colorado.
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