You may not see a meteor passing through the South Florida sky every night, but Sunday night's meteor was caught on camera. That may not happen much, but meteors flying through our skies are more common than you think.
"Meteors happen every day," Nova Southeastern University Assistant Professor Stefan Kautsch said. "You just need to go out for 10 minutes and you'll see probably three meteors."
WATCH VIDEO: Streak Lights Up Night Sky Across Fla.
Kautsch said the fireball created such a buzz because lots of people saw it. The sky was very clear Sunday night around 7:30 p.m. That's when the Coast Guard and American Meteor Society were flooded with calls. A map from the AMS website shows where the calls came from, their description of what they saw and where they saw it, and some reaction comments.
Richard in Tamarac said, "This was remarkable enough for me to be certain that it was not an aircraft/fireworks."
In Pembroke Pines, David said, "It appeared relatively close to here but could have landed in the ocean since we're only 7 miles from the Atlantic."
In Russia, a meteor turned into a meteorite when it hit land, but Kautsch said the only connection between the two, and the asteroid that just missed Earth, is that they are all made up of the same material floating around the Earth. That's something he just taught his students last week.
"It's very exciting that this happened exactly this weekend," Kautsch said. "So many things – the one that hit Russia, the one asteroid that just missed Earth, and the one people saw here in South Florida."
