Bright Meteor Lights Up Japan Sky Across Hundreds Of Miles, Leaves People In Awe

A fireball spotted falling from the night sky over parts of western and central Japan has lit up social media, with users sharing images of the unusually bright shooting star.

According to a report in NDTV, local media said on Sunday, that the fireball was believed to be a bolide - an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.

NHK News

"We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon," Takeshi Inoue, director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium, told Kyodo news agency.

A video tweeted by Public Broadcaster of Japan NHK World News shows the meteor lighting up the sky in Japan, including the cities of Kyoto, Yamaguchi, Shizuka and Okayama.

People across wide areas of Japan were treated to a spectacular light show in the early hours of Sunday, thanks to what is believed to be a meteor. pic.twitter.com/r0HfI082SK

— NHK WORLD News (@NHKWORLD_News) November 30, 2020

The fireball was visible for just a few seconds in the early hours of Sunday, but was caught on cameras owned by national broadcaster NHK - which generally capture earthquake activity rather than extraterrestrial light shows.

“Fireball observed over Japan” - what is @SeenConnors up to? Just a few days there and already creating trouble with his football?! pic.twitter.com/WVCxPEpV9A

— The UX CTO (Sylvain Reiter) (@sylvainreiter) November 29, 2020

Watch more as the meteor shoots through the sky and then disappears.

流れ星の中でも特に明るく輝く火球が、29日午前1時半すぎに、西日本の広い範囲で、観測されました。https://t.co/QCOgTZy7qp pic.twitter.com/RKTx7zYwkN

— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) November 28, 2020

News agency Reuters also posted a dashcam video that captured the rare phenomenon.

Dashcam captures footage of the moment a meteor flashes in Japan pic.twitter.com/5dSKfwFI0o

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 30, 2020

A similarly bright shooting star was spotted over Tokyo in July and later identified as a meteor, fragments of which were found in neighbouring Chiba prefecture.