Massive fireball brings people to tears while some fear it might mean 'Armageddon'
A huge fireball sparked fear among Americans when it was spotted hurtling over a number of states and lighting up the night sky.
As if we don't have enough to worry about in life, the huge fireball made an appearance over a number of southern states, with some residents even managing to catch footage of the sight on camera.
The American Meteor Society, where people can report sightings of fireballs, recorded more than 50 reports after the blazing object lit up the sky over Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Take a look:
The society describes a fireball as a 'very bright meteor' - one which is 'generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky'.
The sight isn't one which is seen extremely often, but several thousand meteors which fit the 'fireball' description actually occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day.
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Thankfully - for our own sanity - most of them over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a lot are also masked by daylight.
Though it's undeniably cool to see an object from space, it's for the best that we can't see every fireball in the vicinity, given the fear that just one can cause.
Some members of the public were convinced that the bright light indicated the end of the world when it occurred earlier this month, with one New Orleans resident saying: "The magnitude of what I saw had me bracing for a catastrophic event.
"I was driving on a freeway when it happened and found myself looking for a mushroom cloud or Armageddon."
In Alabama, one witness to the scene said it nearly brought them to tears.
"I have never seen anything like it at all,'" they said. "This was no shooting star. This was something much bigger and outstanding. I cannot even describe the spectacle it was."
Other people shared their own stories of the fireball after footage of it was shared on Twitter, with one person writing: "I was running at 4:32 AM just north of Carencro and saw it! I thought it was a transformer that blew!"
Another went down the more ominous route, writing: "I read the book of revelation and saw this post! Truly a sign of something! End times!"
Considering it's been nearly two weeks since the fireball occurred on 14 July, it's probably safe to say it wasn't a sign of the end of times. At least, not an immediate one.
Emily Brown