Fireball In South Jersey Skies Caught On Police Camera

A special type of fireball exploded across the sky over South Jersey early Saturday morning, and an alert Hamilton Township Police officer caught it on video. Sgt. Michael Virga was on patrol at 3:09 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2, when his patrol car’s dash cam caught the fireball in the sky, according to Hamilton Township police. Video of the event is embedded below.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) received numerous reports along the east coast about this explosion, and confirmed it was a special type of fireball known as a bolide. A bolide is a fireball that explodes in a bright terminal flash at the end, often with “visible fragmentation.”

AMS defines a fireball as another term for a very bright meteor or about the same brightness of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky. There was no sound that accompanied the light green flash, and the whole thing was over in less than two seconds, according to the AMS.

This particular bolide was also seen in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Washington, DC, according to 6 ABC.

This is the third fireball recently reported in New Jersey skies, according to nj.com. About 70 people spotted a fireball over parts of South Jersey the weekend after Thanksgiving. In October, hundreds of people saw a meteor over New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Hampshire.

Image via Hamilton Township Police Department