For the second day in a row, a large fireball has been seen in the sky over Nova Scotia.

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Wednesday's fireball, seen here as a streak of light in the top left corner, broke up into three or four pieces before hitting the horizon. (Nova Scotia Webcams)

CBC News reporter Phonse Jessome saw the colourful fireball in the northwestern sky above Fall River, 25 km north of Halifax, at 5:17 a.m. AT Wednesday.

He said he saw it make a long, slow entry before breaking up into three or four pieces as it reached the horizon.

"I see shooting stars on this shift [all the time]," Jessome tweeted. "This was no shooting star. Not sure what's going on up there but it looks cool."

Stephen Lukas, who lives in the Hammonds Plains area of Halifax, said he saw the light during his morning run.


Seven seconds

"Just over my left shoulder I had a clear, unobstructed view of what looked to me like a large meteor, silvery white, it was definitely round, streaking through the sky," he said.

"I watched it for what I would guess was about seven seconds. It seemed longer, but that's probably as long as it was, and then it dipped into the horizon. And it did break up. I clearly saw it break up into smaller pieces."

Lukas said he sees shooting stars regularly, about once per month during his morning run, but this one was much bigger. In fact, he said he also saw another one on Monday.

"At first I thought it was a shooting star. I actually saw something similar on Monday morning on my morning run," he said.

Nigel Service, who was up early driving on Old Sambro Road in the Harrietsfield area south of Halifax, echoed Jessome's report.

Increasing in size

"All of a sudden, straight overhead, [there] was a small white light, which I didn't pay any attention to right away, because it almost looked like these new LED lights the city is putting up for street lighting," he said.

"I lost sight of it for about a millisecond and caught it again, and it was increasing in size and looked like it was moving toward mouth of [Halifax] Harbour."

Unlike Jessome, Service said he didn't see it break apart.

He was adamant the light he saw was not coming from the International Space Station, something he is familiar with. He said what he saw in the sky matched what was described by witnesses to Tuesday's fireball over the Maritimes.

On Tuesday, dozens of witnesses across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and near the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec reported seeing a burning, colourful flame that appeared in the sky about 5 a.m. AT.

Astronomer David Lane, director of the observatory at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, said based on the descriptions from witnesses, Tuesday's fireball "sounds very much like a fireball or an extra-bright meteor, meaning a chunk of rock from space that got in the way of Earth and burns up in the atmosphere."