Thousands of meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere every day and burn up in spectacular fireballs. The vast majority of these objects, however, are either too small to be visible, or they fall over oceans or uninhabited areas, or they fall invisibly in the sunlight during the day. Even at night, when shooting stars are most likely to be seen, most people are indoors or asleep.
Witnessing one of these memorable meteorological events is for most people quite rare. The American Meteor Society (AMS), which collects fireball reports from around the world, estimates that even experienced observers might see one high-magnitude meteor every 200 hours of meteor observing.
Because these phenomena are often visible for less than a second, photographs of them are extremely rare. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed hundreds of photographs submitted by meteor enthusiasts to the AMS and selected the brightest, most beautiful examples of recently-observed shooting stars available for use. The location and time of each sighting were also obtained from the AMS.
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Click here to see 14 of the brightest shooting stars ever photographed
Source: Courtesy of PortsmouthWebcam.com
> Sighted over: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
> On: February 28, 2012
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Source: Courtesy of EarthCam
> Sighted over: Liberty Island, United States
> On: July 10, 2016
Source: Courtesy of Patryk Sadowski
> Sighted over: Ballintoy, United Kingdom
> On: February 2, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Daniel B.
> Sighted over: Albany, Missouri
> On: May 15, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Carl R.
> Sighted over: South Lake Tahoe, California
> On: June 27, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Raul Cantu
> Sighted over: Cuatrociénegas Municipality, Mexico
> On: July 3, 2019
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Source: Courtesy of Ross Phelps
> Sighted over: Piermont, New Hampshire
> On: July 24, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Michel D.
> Sighted over: Artignosc-sur-Verdon, France
> On: August 8, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Christopher G. via AMS
> Sighted over: Springfield, New Zealand
> On: August 31, 2019
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Source: Courtesy of Timothy P. via AMS
> Sighted over: Evergreen, Colorado
> On: September 17, 2019
Source: Courtesy of Daniel B. via (www.amsmeteors.org)
> Sighted over: Albany, Missouri
> On: October 17, 2019
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Source: Courtesy of Samer H. via AMS
> Sighted over: Northville, Michigan
> On: December 23, 2019
Source: Courtesy of JYD C. via (www.amsmeteors.org)
> Sighted over: Beijing, China
> On: January 30, 2020
Source: Courtesy of Jurgen R. via (www.amsmeteors.org)
> Sighted over: Werder, Germany
> On: January 5, 2020
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