Fireball lights up night skies across western Japan

Social media has been abuzz with users in Japan reporting sightings of a mysterious object that briefly lit up skies across the country’s west on Tuesday night as it fell.

A Kyodo News livestream of a volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture captured the moment at about 11:08 p.m.

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An official at the Japan weather agency’s Kagoshima meteorological office said it was “probably a fireball or meteorite.”

The around four-second moment, in which a small ball of light fell through the night sky and briefly transformed it into daytime hues, was witnessed from multiple prefectures in the Kinki, Kyushu and Shikoku regions.

“Seeing an object that produces a flash of this intensity is perhaps a once-in-a-year opportunity,” said Kazuyoshi Imamura, a curator at the Anan Science Center in Tokushima Prefecture who filmed the incident at home.

Local municipalities and police said they have not received any reports of injury in connection with the case.

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