Ranchers and other property owners in western Calaveras County and eastern San Joaquin County may soon be getting calls from a NASA scientist. Marc Fries, a meteoriticist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, will be asking permission to search locally for fragments of a green fireball that people from Los Angeles to Merced reported seeing streaking through the sky around 2 a.m. on Dec. 27.
There was an intensely bright and spectacular fireball seen in the northern California skies. Some reports of a huge fireworks like show with bright green blue gold and white flashes of light. The fireball "blew outwards into a perfect big green circle that formed around the ball" according to Erika Knorn of Merced CA.
A glowing tomato-green fireball shot through the black Merced sky early Saturday, stunning those fortunate enough to see its brief life. Merced resident Erika Knorn, 42, had awoken just before 2 a.m. to take her dog, Shadow, to the bathroom before returning to bed. She gazed toward the sky and noticed the burst of colour above her house near East Olive and Parsons avenues.