In a matter of seconds, a fireball streaked across the skies over New Jersey on Dec. 2. During the event, a police dashcam caught the fireball as it lit up the nighttime sky.
The Township of Hamilton Police Department posted the video on its Facebook page earlier this week. The fireball was believed to be a meteor that entered the Earth's atmosphere, and burned up before hitting the Earth.
"On December 2, 2017 at 3:09 am, Sgt. Michael Virga was on patrol when his vehicle dashcam caught a fireball in the sky," the department said in a statement. "The event was confirmed by the American Meteor Society (AMS) who received numerous reports along the east coast for this event.
"AMS states a fireball is another term for a very bright meteor or about the same brightness of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky. A bolide is a special type of fireball which explodes in a bright terminal flash at its end, often with visible fragmentation."
