A meteoric fireball lit up the East Coast of Florida Sunday evening, only two days after a large meteor wreaked destruction in Russia, and a smaller fireball touched down in California.
The Florida meteor, sighted just before 6 p.m., was also tiny, experts told The Florida Times-Union.
But Thomas Webber, director of the Museum of Science and History's Bryan-Gooding Planetarium, said meteors and smaller meteorites strike the Earth "every hour of every day," so they're not rare. But Sunday's sighting, though small, was bigger than most.
"This one wasn't grain-of-sand size, which what most of them are," Webber said to The Florida Times-Union. "When we get something a little bigger, that maybe has a silicate coating that ablates off as it travels though the atmosphere and takes some of the heat with it, they can appear much brighter and last a lot longer."
Thirty people reported Sunday night's meteor on the "Fireball Log" at www.amsmeteors.org, with comments ranging from "I saw flames coming from it as it was falling" from a Delray Beach resident to "Was scared" from a Miami resident. Only one Jacksonville sighting appeared on the site. Several people called Coast Guard stations, including at Mayport, the paper reported.
After the Russian meteor made headlines across the world, Webber said people may be a bit on edge.
"There's an awareness and there might be a little trepidation now," Webber told The Florida Times-Union. "People are a little on edge. When something is on our mind, we tend to see it more."
Watch a video report about the Florida fireball below:
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