Watch: Meteor zooms across the night sky over Maine
The meteor was part of the Geminid meteor shower, a dazzling astronomical display that peaks every mid-December.
Watch: Meteor shoots across the night sky over Maine
Footage shows the meteor as a bright white object streaking across the sky over Freeport, Maine, on Wednesday. (Courtesy: @wonderpixels via Storyful)
FREEPORT, Maine – A meteor was recently filmed streaking across the sky over Freeport, Maine.
Two cameras that captured the footage were pointed toward Casco Bay, which lies near the coastal town of Freeport.
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In the video, the meteor appears as a flashing, white object falling through the darkness with a long white tail.
With a timestamp of 2:17 a.m., footage from one angle shows the meteor shooting underneath the bright, glowing moon.
Footage shows the meteor as a bright white object streaking across the sky over Freeport, Maine. (@wonderpixels via Storyful / FOX Weather)
Another angle shows the meteor zooming over the silhouettes of faintly moonlit fields and trees.
This angle shows the meteor over fields and trees in Freeport, Maine, on December 14, 2022. (@wonderpixels via Storyful / FOX Weather)
The meteor was part of the Geminid meteor shower, or Geminids, a dazzling astronomical display that happens near the end of every year.
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This year, the meteor show began on Nov. 19 and will last until Dec. 24. Peak meteor activity occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday, the latter of which being when the meteor was filmed shooting across the sky in Maine.
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We call them shooting stars, but it's actually meteors that create dazzling streaks of light across our night sky.
The Geminids occur when the Earth makes its annual passage through the path of a comet-like asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
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That path is littered with bits and pieces that have broken off of 3200 Phaethon. The particles, in turn, fall onto the Earth when the planet passes through, burning up in the sky and creating the Geminid meteor shower.