What Could Be This Mysterious Flaming Object Spotted Across The Sky In Portland?

First Posted: Sep 05, 2016 05:46 AM EDT
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A huge fireball was seen across the sky in Portland, Oregon early Saturday morning with about 135 people witnessed the event. The strange object has not been identified even though it was filmed by many viewers.

The American Meteorology Society stated that people as far as north as British Columbia in Canada have seen the fireball too, according to Daily Mail. It is reported that the detections of the fireball came from Port Angeles, Washington south to Medford. Most of them saw it in the Willamette Valley and the Oregon coast.

Jim Todd, the director of space education at OMSI told the KOIN 6 News that it is difficult to say if it was a spacecraft debris or not. He added that the odd object was moving west to east.

"Very bright, lasted for roughly 7 to 8 seconds," said Todd. "That is fairly fast, and bright white, bluish in color, seems to have broken up into pieces." He further said that if the object survived at all, it's probably in the Rocky Mountains. The event was documented at Fireball Event Log showing who saw the mysterious fireball and where they were.

According to NASA, fireballs are just big meteors, which are the results of meteoroids falling into the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. Both fireball and meteors are common events. An object, which is about one meter in diameter or larger strikes the Earth's atmosphere about 40 times a year. In March 2003, an event called "Chicago Fireball," in which a space rock fell into the atmosphere, heated up and broke into 500 fragments. These struck the houses, cars and road but no people were reported injured.

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