Aurora Photographer Captures Dazzling Fireball Over Canada (Photos)

Fireball Over Vee Lake, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada #2
Astrophotographer Yuichi Takasaka tweeted this photo of a fireball over Vee Lake, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, on March 5, 2014. (Image credit: ©Yuichi Takasaka/www.blue-moon.ca/TWAN)

A blindingly-bright fireball blazed across an aurora-filled sky over remote Canada's Northwest Territories in these spectacular images by astrophotographer Yuichi Takasaka of the photography group The World at Night (TWAN).

"One of the brightest fireball I've seen tonight!" Takasaka (@ytakasaka) tweeted on March 5.

Takasaka was leading an aurora photography tour when a shooting star blasted across the sky over Vee Lake, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, where it exploded toward the north, as seen in these images. "It got so bright that I had to close my eyes, just like someone used an electric flash in front of me," Takasaka wrote Space.com in an email. [Videos: 5 Amazing Fireballs Light Up Night Sky]

Astrophotographer Yuichi Takasaka tweeted this photo of a fireball over Vee Lake, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, on March 5, 2014. (Image credit: ©Yuichi Takasaka/www.blue-moon.ca/TWAN)

"A few minutes later, we could hear the huge explosion sound from the direction of the fireball fell. I am not sure the sound was created by sonic boom or something else." The photographer didn't adjust anything with images from the RAW file to jpg. They were only resized down to 1200 x 800.

"What an exciting night," Takasaka said.

Astrophotographer Yuichi Takasaka tweeted this photo of a fireball over Vee Lake, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada, on March 5, 2014. The top photo shows the brightness of a car's high-beam headlights which passed by 5 minutes earlier. (Image credit: ©Yuichi Takasaka/www.blue-moon.ca/TWAN)

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Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.