Fireball streaks through aurora-filled skies | Space photo of the day for June 5, 2025

Spectators were already out capturing the stunning aurora display when a blazing meteor sped past.

What is it?

At 5:57 a.m. local time skywatchers around Montréal, Canada and parts of the northeastern U.S. found themselves watching the brilliant streak of a bright meteor, also called a fireball, zoom across the sky.

The aurora borealis, or “the northern lights” happen when charged particles ejected from the sun interact with Earth’s atmosphere. These particles are shuttled to our planet’s north and south poles by Earth’s magnetic field. There, the particles excite gas and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, creating various colors depending on which gas is in the atmosphere.

Where is it?

This photo was taken in Chelsea, a municipality of Quebec.

Why is it amazing?

Blue and purple auroras are rather rare, as the particles from the sun interact with Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less. These colors tend to be seen at the lower part of the display. The most common color for auroras is green, as the human eye is most sensitive to green in the visible color spectrum.

Adjacent to the aurora in the sky is a giant fireball, which, according to NOIRLab, has to have a streak brighter than how the planets appear in the sky (with an apparent magnitude of –4 or more luminous) to be seen by observers.

This photograph was one of 14 reported sightings according to the American Meteor Society on June 3, 2025.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about brilliant fireballs and stunning auroras lighting up our night skies.