Manhattan meteor, The fireball as seen by Tom Hopkins of Hopkins Automotive Group in Maryland (AP Photo/Hopkins Automotive Group)
There was a photo being passed around social media that unfortuantely was fake. And there was also this video, which most people seem to agree isn't real (or at least wasn't from last night):
But a woman in Maryland did get footage of it on her security camera:
According to The American Meteor Society, the meteor was actually more of a fireball—a fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal (most meteors are only the size of a pebble), which means it was way more badass. They added that they had received more than 500 reports of the fireball along the east coast, and also, it was not really that close:
Meteors often appear much closer than they really are. There is often a common misconception that the object appeared nearby when in fact the actual flight path was several hundred miles away and was witnessed over several states. It is your perspective that makes meteors appear to strike the horizon when in fact they are still high in the atmosphere.Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, told The Associated Press that though meteor showers are not that rare, "it's unusual to have so many people see it." Unless there was some sort of alien event last night, and everyone who saw it has been blasted with one of those Men In Black memory neuralyzers. This guy knows what we're talking about.