A fireball — yes, a fireball — shocked California residents Friday night as it barreled through the sky above the Bay Area.
In the trail (ha…ha…) of a meteor shower in Russia and that asteroid that caressed the earth, many have wondered if there's a connection between all these celestial close calls.
There's not, Astronomer Gerald McKeegan said, who labeled the firey mass a "sporadic meteor," USA Today reported. These random meteors can happen several times a day, and are responsible for bringing 15,000 tons of space debris to Earth a year.
Over 35 sightings of the blueish mass were reported, as far north as Fairfield and as far south as Gilroy, with reports from in Sacramento, Newark, Walnut Creek and St. Helena, NBC News Southern California reported.
The meteor experts among us don't seem too ruffled by the blazing mass, however.
“This is a very common occurrence,” said Jonathan Braidman, an instructor at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, the Associated Press reported. “What is uncommon is that it’s so close to where people are living.”
There's also the matter of that pesky Russian meteor shower stealing its thunder.
“The media attention on the Russian thing got people’s attention, so they’re more likely to notice things in the sky,” said Mike Hankey, operations manager of the American Meteor Society, according to the AP.
More from GlobalPost: Russian meteor memes, translated
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