Giant Fireball Lights Up Night Sky in Northeast US

— -- A large fireball lit up the sky shortly after midnight in the northeastern U.S. early Tuesday morning.

Police dashcam video from the Portland Police Department caught the fireball shooting across the sky in Maine.

The American Meteor Society says that it received 425 reports of the cosmic object, "seen primarily from Maine but witnesses from Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ontario (Canada) and Québec (Canada) also reported the event."

According to the AMS, "a fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus as seen in the morning or evening sky."

The AMS says that while fireballs are very common occurrences, they are rarely seen.