RIDGEFIELD, Wash. — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com
A bright green light dazzled drivers on I-5 in Southwest Washington early Monday morning.
Jason Jenkins’ dash camera captured the celestial phenomenon at 6:06 a.m. Monday in Ridgefield, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The video can be viewed here.
“It was bright, it was green, it was spectacular,” Jenkins told The Associated Press. “One tiny little piece of rock put on such a show this morning.”
Traffic was light when the green flash cascaded across the left side of the sky. Like a firework, the fireball started as a green streak and exploded, lighting up the trees in front of it.
“It kind of reminded me of a lightning strike because it was so bright,” Jenkins told The Associated Press. “The video doesn’t do it justice on how bright and close it seemed.”
The bright light was a meteor, visible at altitudes up to 80 miles above the Earth, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland explained to The Associated Press.
What gives a meteor its green glow
Magnesium in a meteor turns it a blue-green shade, according to IFLScience. For example, the Geminids meteor shower, which peaks in December, according to NASA, appears greenish-blue due to its nickel and magnesium components.
IFLScience noted that in a lab, iron can appear gold, whereas the orange-yellow color is more commonly seen in space. A slower meteor is more likely to be red.
Some may remember the six-planet alignment and the Perseid meteor shower last August. Viewers could see up to 100 meteors per hour.
Jenkins said he was grateful his dashcam captured the moment.
“I won’t go without a dashcam ever again,” he told The Associated Press.
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