Astronomer: Bright object over Kitsap likely a meteor

SILVERDALE — Jennifer Connelly was driving home Tuesday night when a bright white object raced across her field of vision, flying over the trees and into the distance. It looked like it was headed straight for Silverdale. 

"It scared the crap out of me," Connelly said. "For a split second, I thought it was a nuke." 

She wasn't the only one. At about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue received a call of a possible plane crash in Tracyton. The caller said they saw white and red lights headed toward the water. 

Thankfully, the celestial object that lit up Western Washington on Tuesday night wasn't a missile or plane, but likely a fireball, according to Mike Hankey with the American Meteor Society. 

"Meteor" is the name for the flash of light given off by a meteoroid as it flies through the atmosphere. According to AMS' website, fireballs are meteors brighter than the planet Venus when observed from the ground. 

"People see these things and you know, the human imagination, they want answers," Hankey said.

The AMS tracks meteor sitings throughout the country using software that allows anyone who thinks they have seen a fireball to record their observation. Over 30 people indicated they had seen the meteor Tuesday night, with reports coming from as far south as Portland and as far north as British Columbia, including six in Kitsap County. 

With so many reports spread out over a large area, Hankey was fairly confident the object was a fireball. Other possibilities include space trash — like the remains of satellites, but those usually move more slowly across the sky.

"There's just not that many things that it can be," Hankey said. 

The AMS takes reports and compares the observed direction, descent angle, elevation and azimuth (how many degrees to the left or right of a point) to get an estimate of the meteor's path. 

The American Meteor Society maps reports of meteor sightings in the United States, including one reported on Tuesday night in the Paciific Northwest.

Based on the reports from Tuesday, the fireball appears to have "landed" closer to the Pacific Ocean than Kitsap County, just southeast of Neah Bay. 

"The solutions aren't perfect, they're estimates, but most of the time they're good within 50 kilometers," Hankey said.

Connelly described the object as very bright, slightly orange and white in color. While she could tell it was very far away, the trajectory made it look as if the meteor was headed for Silverdale. 

"I can see how people would think it looked like it was going down," Connelly said. 

Jay Klega, an East Bremerton resident, saw what he assumed were fireworks floating to the ground while stopped at the intersection of Sylvan Way and Wheaton Way. 

"That was the weird thing, is that it was such a steep angle, almost a 40-degree angle coming down," Klega said. 

It's possible the meteor was related to the Orionids meteor shower, which peaked this weekend. According to Hankey, fireballs of this size and magnitude are usually not associated with traditional meteor showers, which are made up of smaller pieces of space debris.

Fear is a normal reaction to fireballs — Hankey said he has fielded many calls from people trying to confirm whether a bright object streaking across the sky is a plane or a meteor. But he encouraged anyone who is lucky enough to spot one to enter it into the AMS' system. 

"It's an overwhelming experience," Hankey said.