DENVER — If you woke up early on Sunday morning, you might have seen a ray of light that briefly turned night into day.
A few viewers on Denver7 shared a video of a meteor drifting into the Colorado night sky around 3am
The meteor was captured on video from several areas along the frontal mountains. One viewer who caught the meteor on a doorphone video feed said the fireball illuminated the entire neighborhood.
Generally, most of these “fireballs” burn up very high in the atmosphere, often 16 to 20 miles above the surface. These objects appear to collide fairly close together, but rarely actually reach the ground.
The vibrant lights and colors we see are caused by the evaporation of matter hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of 50,000 to 70,000 miles per hour. The often reported greenish color is actually the glow of ionized oxygen.
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