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9:00 p.m. The skies over Los Angeles—It's a typical Monday night in April. Jews around the Southland are gathered at dining tables for Passover, reciting the biblical tale of their exodus from Egypt. Along the shore, tourists stroll the Santa Monica pier taking in the Pacific air. A car stalls along La Brea Avenue, the driver cursing his luck. In Van Nuys, a young couple is fighting. Suddenly, a light comes across the sky.
East Lake #SanDiego #Meteor @ABC7 @Daledemi19 pic.twitter.com/2bujXekrKR
— Faye 🏳️🌈 (@FayeFayee3) April 11, 2017
The fireball was seen from the San Fernando Valley all the way south to San Diego and east to the Inland Empire.
According to Dr. Edwin Krupp, an astronomer at Griffith Observatory, the object, most likely a bolide (or a meteorite that produces a bright flash as it breaks up in Earth's atmosphere) may have been no larger than a tennis ball, reports KNBC.
The incident calls to mind the 'Chelyabinsk Event' in 2013, when a 20-meter wide near-earth asteroid broke apart over central Russia. The superbolide was captured by dashboard cameras as it illuminated the entire night sky.
No such luck back here in SoCal, but, hey, at least it didn't signal the end of the world...yet.
If you were lucky enough to see the meteor tonight, you can report it to @amsmeteors 🤓: https://t.co/ljHfwjFC4x pic.twitter.com/jZ8z93Avp0
— THE L.A. SCENE (@TheLAScene) April 11, 2017
That was a rad little flash in the sky to end band practice, San Diego. #meteor pic.twitter.com/ktSmpA2C0i
— David Eli Martin (@davidmartin08) April 11, 2017
Just saw a huge meteor from Northwest Phoenix towards California! Huge! #meteor
— Greg Freeman (@grgfremn) April 11, 2017
