Green Fireball Lights Up Portland, Washington, Eugene, Oregon Coast - Video

Published 9/24/24 at 6:45 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Portland, Oregon) – Reports came in from Coos Bay and Florence on the Oregon coast; up in Washington as far north as Vashon and all the way down in California to Paso Robles. A big, green mystery ball from space hit the Earth's atmosphere and briefly lit up parts of the West Coast.

Jim Todd, astronomy expert with Portland's OMSI, said about 10:30 p.m. on Monday (September 23) a fireball smacked the atmosphere and briefly created quite the light show. Video from Cornelius' Ann H. - near the Oregon Coast Range – shows the fireball descend rapidly and expand its glow, until a few brief flashes of different color at its end behind the trees.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) website shows multiple reports from areas like Portland, western Washington, northern California, and Eugene, Bend and much more.

“There were numerous reports of a bright fireball moving towards the southeast seen from the Oregon coast to Bend, Oregon,” Todd said. “Based on the video, appears as a fireball. If the meteor (shooting star) is large enough to survive the fall through the atmosphere, it cools and doesn't emit any visible light at all.”

Direction was "to the south."

This was quick and bright, Todd said, the sure signs of a fireball and not a meteor. If it actually hits the ground, then it becomes a meteorite, but there is no way to know if that happened at this time.

“Fireballs are caused by space rocks that enter the Earth's atmosphere and are slowed down and heated by friction,” Todd said. “Objects that cause fireballs can be larger than one meter in size. Fireballs are caused by space rocks that are made of stone, ice, metal, or a combination of these materials.”

They hit the Earth's atmosphere at over 1,000 mph, and have likely been floating around space for millions of years.

So what's it made of?

Fireball seen in Lincoln City several years ago

“If the meteor (shooting star) is large enough to survive the fall through the atmosphere, it cools and doesn't emit any visible light at all,” Todd said. “A green glow, clearly visible in the trail of this shooting star, indicates the presence of burning copper.”

Alton Lukens is an astronomer who works at University of Oregon's Pine Mountain Observatory in Bend. He told Oregon Coast Beach Connection in 2023 that objects that make this kind of impression don't have to be all that large.

“You'd be surprised how small an object can be to make a fireball,” Lukens said. “It can be as little as 30 centimeters across. Basically, a golf ball-sized object can look quite grand as it burns up.”

Graphic Oregon Coast Beach Connection: a rendering of what staff saw in Portland's Gabriel Park in 2023.

Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff have seen two of these – two years apart almost to the hour and day. They are spectacular and bizarre. The one seen on March 19, 2021 was only reported by three other people on the AMS website. The one spotted on March 21, 2023 had more reports, and others on the Oregon Coast Beach Connection Facebook page also confirmed sightings.

See Spectacular Green Fireball Lights Up Oregon Valley Through Washington Coast From bright white to a neon green: astronomers weigh in

Both of those sightings happened about 2:30 a.m.

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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