Green fireball seen streaking over Southern California, Nevada, Arizona

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
Updated ·2 min read

Many people in Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona reported seeing a “green fireball” streaking across the sky on Thursday night.

Hesperia resident David Cameron told the Daily Press that just after 6:30 p.m., he looked to the northeast and saw a “green object” streaking slowly toward Earth.

“It had a long green tail, and it was visible for a few seconds before it disappeared,” Cameron, 59, said. “I wish I had my camera with me.”

Several people claimed the falling object was a decommissioned SpaceX satellite burning up on reentry. Others speculated that the object was part of this year’s Geminid meteor shower, as reported by the Daily Press.

NASA officials shared what really caused the fireball.

The shower is from shooting debris from the 3200 Phaethon asteroid, a 3.17-mile wide space rock orbiting the Earth at a distance of more than 6.4 million miles. The asteroid's orbit crosses the orbits of Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury, according to NASA.

Peak celestial shower activity was expected in mid-December, with continued activity for much of the month.

A 'huge' fireball in the sky

Kevin Wylie said he was driving east of Lucerne Valley when he saw a “green comet-like object” streak across the sky.

“It was huge, and it appeared in the sky for quite some time before it dropped out of sight,” said Wylie, 40, who lives in Apple Valley. “It really was cool to see.”

Ashley Rose, of Oak Hills, took to Facebook to say she saw the huge fireball at 6:41 p.m. while driving on Interstate 10. She added that “a bunch of us hit our brakes when we saw it.”

More: The best time to see the Geminid meteor shower is this week. Here's how to watch.

In a Facebook post, Sarah Derruisseaux of Arizona asked, “Did anyone get the shooting star/comet on camera tonight, between 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.? It was in the west falling from north to south.”

Carrie Russell of Arizona told Derruisseaux that her dash cam captured video of the falling object.

“Honestly, my video didn’t do it justice is was sooo bright and huge!” Russell said. “It looked like a HUGE fireball in the sky!! It was amazing!”

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz.

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Green fireball seen streaking over Southern California, Nevada, Ariz.