Meteor fireball (stock)
© Ikonacolor/Getty Images (file photo)
A meteor almost surely traveled across the sky over northern New England early Wednesday night, substantiated by numerous reports in the area.

At least two dozen people from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts submitted fireball reports though the American Meteor Society's website.


Reports were submitted from 5:20 p.m. to 6:04 p.m., indicating the flash happened at about 5:15 p.m. Most people said it lasted for 3.5 seconds.

Here's a map of the reports filed on AMS:
AMS fireball map over NE US
© AMS

So what's the difference between a meteor, meteoroid or meteorite? According to hubblesite.org, a meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere; a meteoroid is the debris, so small we often don't see or it becomes vaporized; and a meteoroid survives the fall to land.