<p>A fireball spotted falling from the night sky over parts of western and central Japan has lit up social media, with users sharing images of the unusually bright shooting star.</p>.<p>Local media said the fireball was believed to be a bolide, an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.</p>.<p>"We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon," Takeshi Inoue, director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium, told Kyodo news agency.</p>.<p>The fireball was visible for just a few seconds in the early hours of Sunday, but was caught on cameras owned by national broadcaster NHK -- which generally capture earthquake activity rather than extraterrestrial light shows.</p>.<p>"The sky went bright for a moment and I felt strange because it couldn't be lightning," said one Twitter user who saw the fireball. "I felt the power of the universe!"</p>.<p>"Was that a fireball? I thought it was the end of the world..." said another, tweeting a video of the meteor captured while driving.</p>.<p>A similarly bright shooting star was spotted over Tokyo in July and later identified as a meteor, fragments of which were found in neighbouring Chiba prefecture.</p>
<p>A fireball spotted falling from the night sky over parts of western and central Japan has lit up social media, with users sharing images of the unusually bright shooting star.</p>.<p>Local media said the fireball was believed to be a bolide, an extremely bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.</p>.<p>"We believe the last burst of light was as bright as the full moon," Takeshi Inoue, director of the Akashi Municipal Planetarium, told Kyodo news agency.</p>.<p>The fireball was visible for just a few seconds in the early hours of Sunday, but was caught on cameras owned by national broadcaster NHK -- which generally capture earthquake activity rather than extraterrestrial light shows.</p>.<p>"The sky went bright for a moment and I felt strange because it couldn't be lightning," said one Twitter user who saw the fireball. "I felt the power of the universe!"</p>.<p>"Was that a fireball? I thought it was the end of the world..." said another, tweeting a video of the meteor captured while driving.</p>.<p>A similarly bright shooting star was spotted over Tokyo in July and later identified as a meteor, fragments of which were found in neighbouring Chiba prefecture.</p>