Fireball ‘shaped like a candy corn’ reported in the night sky over Florida

A fireball was reported in the night sky over Florida and at least one witness likened it to a giant, flaming piece of candy corn, according to the American Meteor Society.

It happened just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, and was seen in the Auburndale area, between Tampa and Orlando, the society said.

“I didn’t know what it was,” one woman told the Meteor Society. “But it was shaped like a candy corn and right before going beside the trees its light went out. It was big also. Not small like stars and very bright green.”

Likening a fireball to candy corn is not so far fetched. The sugary treat, which is a Halloween tradition, is shaped like a cone with progressively brighter colors of white, orange and fiery yellow.

The report said the fireball also resembled “a light long cloud” at one point and was visible for about 1.5 seconds. No sounds were associated with the sighting, the report said.

It coincided with the “South Taurid meteor shower, which peaks around this date,” according to NASA Meteor Watch.

“Taurid meteors tend to be slow-moving but sometimes very bright,” EarthSky reported. “The showers sometimes produce fireballs.”

Another South Taurid meteor was seen by multiple people in Florida and Georgia around 9:30 p.m. Monday, NASA said. It was also detected by cameras at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, officials said.

“Analysis of the video data indicates that object — a 2 inch fragment of Comet Encke weighing about half a pound — began to ablate 57 miles above the Florida town of Bunnell, near the Atlantic coast,” NASA Meteor Watch reported. “It moved just a bit north of west at 61,000 miles per hour, finally disintegrating 23 miles above southeastern Gainesville.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Fireball ‘shaped like a candy corn’ reported in the night sky over Florida."