A Daytime Fireball in 1944
While stationed in central Africa in December 1944, Norman Appleton witnessed a meteor so bright he remembered it his entire life. Right before his eyes a tremendous smoking fireball streaked across the daytime sky. Years later, as an accomplished member of the Guild of Aviation Artists , he recorded his memories in the above painting . Several days ago, on July 23 at 6:19 pm EDT , a daytime fireball visible from the northeast United States was reported by many personal accounts . No pictures of this event have yet surfaced, although it is quite possible that a video security camera somewhere caught it serendipitously. The bolide was likely caused by a sofa-sized rocky meteor disintegrating as it fell to Earth, an event that occurs over some unpopulated area almost every day.