People from Santa Barbara to San Diego reported seeing fireballs streaking across the sky Wednesday night. Videos taken of the event show a light lasting only few quick seconds before disappearing.
John Young of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park was giving a presentation on comets and asteroids when an audience member said he saw a flash of light across the sky. Young and Dr. Lisa Will, who was also presenting, were able to put an image of a similar flying object up on the screen and talk about what the audience member saw.
Young said it was likely a meteor shower that occurs every three years around this time.
“In fact, some people call them Halloween fireballs,” he said. “It’s more active now because the Earth is passing through remnants of this comet. It literally leaves pieces of itself behind.”
Young said the showers are nothing new, but technology is making people more aware of meteor showers and how they work.
Pieces of the meteor shower will continue to fall through the night sky until Nov. 12.
