Bright green fireball streaks across the skies of Southern California, US
Image credit: Bright green fireball streaking across the skies of Southern California on April 26, 2016.
A bright green fireball was recorded streaking across the skies of Southern California at 04:40 UTC on April 27, 2016 (21:40 PDT on April 26).
American Meteor Society received more than 65 reports and is investigating the case. According to witness reports, the event lasted from 3 to 20 seconds and was not accompanied by sound. Some observers reported fragmentation.
Dr. Ed Krupp from Griffith Observatory told KTLA that the object was most likely a piece of interplanetary debris that was re-entering the atmosphere and heated up to create a meteor.
However, a statement released by the U.S. Strategic Command said the object did not appear to be a tracked satellite in their database. This led them to conclude the re-entry of a man-made object did not occur.
The event was captured on dash-cam video:
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