Moment Mystery Light Streaked Across Night Sky Captured on Video

Published at 9:02 am, October 21, 2014 | Updated at 11:04 am, October 22, 2015

EastIdahoNews.com Staff

Illustration. iStock/Thinkstock(HUNTSVILLE, Ala.) — The moment a bright light streaked across the night sky in Trussville, Alabama, was captured on video Monday night.

The sighting came as the Earth passed through the debris cloud from Halley’s Comet, which produces the annual Orionid meteor shower.

Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told ABC News there were “several bright Orionids Monday night, as well as a spectacular fireball over middle Tennessee” that he said broke apart at 24 miles altitude just south of Nashville.

While it’s not entirely clear what the streak of light captured on the security camera is, it’s possible it could be the fireball that Cooke mentions.

Sky-gazers were treated to a show as bits of comet dust hit the atmosphere, producing as many as a couple dozen shooting stars per hour, according to Cooke.

“Meteoroids from Halley’s Comet strike Earth’s atmosphere traveling 148,000 mph,” Cooke said in a news release. “Only the November Leonids are faster.”

The shower is named for Orion, the constellation they appear to streak out of, according to astronomers.