Fireball over Japan
© CCO
Reports suggest that what appeared to be a flashy object traveling at breakneck speed over Japanese skies could be a meteorite after residents heard a loud explosion a few minutes after its passage.

Social media chatter among Japanese users is currently focused on the sighting of a luminous "fireball" that dashed across the sky on Monday morning. The celestial spectacle was observed primarily in Japan's eastern and northeastern regions, according to media reports.

Daichi Fujii, the curator of the local history museum in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, was among the first to provide an account of the event. He posted the footage of the speeding object in the sky on his X social media page. Fujii noted that the clip was recorded on camera at his home in Hiratsuka and another in the neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture.


According to Fujii's analysis, the "fireball" was traveling at a speed of 42.4 kilometers per second, descending from Sagami Bay to Nagano Prefecture.

Minutes later, reports emerged from various areas, with residents claiming to have heard a noise akin to an explosion, possibly suggesting the meteorite's impact, as mentioned by the museum curator.

Subsequently, additional recordings showing the passage of the cosmic object surfaced on YouTube, captured by cameras stationed by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Tokyo and Fukushima Prefecture.