NASA: Flash reports consistent with meteor shower

WASHINGTON — Social media sites are buzzing with reports of a flash of light streaking across the sky along the U.S. East Coast.

Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program, said the reports appear to be consistent with a meteor shower.

Yeomans told The Associated Press that he didn’t know the cause of the Friday night sightings. He said meteor showers are not that rare, but “it’s unusual to have so many people see it.”

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society told USA Today “it basically looked like a super bright shooting star.”

Yeomans said meteor showers typically don’t reach the ground. He said they’re generally made up of chunks of asteroids that enter the earth’s atmosphere and, if small enough, “burn up after putting on a good show.”