Super fireball lights up evening sky in N China

By Sun Chi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-12-02

A super bright fireball brightens the evening sky. [File photo/ScienceNet.cn]

China's Xinhua News Agency reported a golden UFO appeared in the northwestern sky and was seen by some citizens in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei on the evening of Nov 30. Astronomers said it was a super fireball that is rarely seen.

Ma Qiang is an amateur astronomer living in Tianjin who witnessed the flying fireball. He said the fireball glittered and flew from northwest to the west around 5:25 pm and disappeared after two seconds. Its golden lights were brighter than the moon.

Some citizens in Beijing also saw the fireball and reported the incident. Director of Beijing Planetarium Zhu Jin said the glittering object is a super bright fireball that is rarely seen, according to descriptions given by the witnesses.

Astronomers say a fireball is a kind of meteor that has seldom been observed. Flying in the aerosphere, the fireball sometimes sounds like a pen scratching on paper. It is brighter than Venus at night.