A flashing fireball dashed across the skies of western Japan

A flashing fireball dashed across the skies of western Japan, shocking residents and dazzling stargazers, though experts said it was a natural phenomenon and not an alien invasion.

Videos and photos emerged online of the extremely bright ball of light visible for hundreds of kilometres shortly after 11:00 pm local time on Tuesday. Toshihisa Maeda, head of Sendai Space Museum in the Kagoshima region in southwestern Japan, also said that it was a fireball, an exceptionally bright meteor.