Another bright fireball spotted in night sky over N.J., N.Y., Pa.

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A bright fireball was seen streaking through the night sky this past weekend in parts of New Jersey, New York and other eastern states — the second fireball to be spotted in the region in four days, according to reports from the American Meteor Society and NASA.

NASA said the fast-moving fireball, a bright meteor, was seen in Westchester County, New York, shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday, and was also spotted by sky watchers in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

"An analysis of these reports indicates that the fireball first became visible 50 miles above the New York City suburb of Mamaroneck, moving at bit east of north at 38,000 miles per hour," a post on the NASA Meteor Watch Facebook page stated. "It disintegrated at an altitude of 30 miles above Norven Green State Forest, after travelling some 37 miles through the upper atmosphere."

NASA said the weekend fireball "was not associated with any currently active meteor shower," so it may have been what astronomy experts refer to as a "sporadic meteor."

Among the New Jersey towns where people reported seeing Saturday night's fireball were Bordentown, Brick, Franklin Township, Gloucester City, Harvey Cedars, Hamilton, Hoboken, Lambertville, Manchester, Middle Township, Mount Laurel, New Brunswick, Palmyra and Piscataway.

People in at least a dozen towns across New Jersey, and others in Pennsylvania and New York state, also saw a bright fireball dipping down from the sky during the pre-dawn hours last Wednesday. It wasn't immediately known if that fireball was a stray meteor or related to an annual meteor shower.

The 2024 meteor shower season will soon be ramping up, starting with the Lyrid meteor shower — with some shooting stars becoming visible as early as Monday night. But this annual meteor shower is expected to reach its peak and generate its highest number of shooting stars during the late-night hours on April 22 into the pre-dawn hours on April 23.

Even though it's not as dazzling as the annual summer Perseids, the Lyrid meteor shower can sometimes have an unexpected outburst of dozens of meteors per hour, according to astronomy experts at EarthSky.org and NASA.

"The Lyrids are known for their fast and bright meteors," NASA noted. "Lyrids don't tend to leave long, glowing dust trains behind them as they streak through the Earth's atmosphere, but they can produce the occasional bright flash called a fireball."

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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.

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