Advertisement Meteor sightings reported across New Hampshire Bright streak from meteor captured in pictures, video Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Dozens of people reported seeing a bright meteor streaking across the sky in New Hampshire Wednesday night.Click to watch News 9's coverage.People reported seeing the meteor in Campton, Salem, Hooksett, Lebanon, Hampstead, Milton and Ashuelot. Some even managed to catch it on camera or video, including a Northfield police officer who caught it on his cruiser's dashcam.View the video of the meteor in Northfield."I was just driving down Park Street, and all of a sudden, there was a big, bright light in the sky right in front of me," Officer Aaron Chapple said. "It looked like a meteor streaking across the sky."Chapple said it appeared to last eight to nine seconds."It was a large, bright, whitish-blue ball moving through the sky with a small tail behind it," he said. "I hit my cruiser camera to reactivate the camera so it would back-record the meteor, and it showed up on the video."That video was shown at Plymouth State University during an astronomy class. Several students said they also spotted it."I was on my bike, and I got off, and I thought, 'Did that just land here?'" student Maxwell Goddard said. "I biked off to see because it looked so close, until I realized, no. That must have actually just been huge."Professor Tom Morin discussed the video in class and took a closer look at it."When we are looking at this, look at how bright it gets. Then it's going to dim off," he said. "The idea that it's blue and it happened so quickly, I would say it's most likely that a meteor did that."Morin said meteors are common. They're fragments left by comets or asteroids that begin to burn up when they hit the atmosphere."And when it hits the atmosphere, it gets very bright, and then it blows up like a shotgun," he said. "At the angle that it came in, I think it was a little steeper, so I don't think anything made it to the ground."Morin said he will look into whether any part of the meteor made it to the ground.Anyone with photos of the meteor is asked to share them by emailing them to NewsPics@WMUR.com.Get the WMUR app12967056