Fireball Explodes in Flames Over Bangkok and is Captured on Camera (VIDEO)

First Posted: Sep 08, 2015 08:11 AM EDT

A mysterious fireball lit up Thailand on Monday morning, exploding in a brilliant ball of light that briefly illuminated Bangkok. What this object was, though, has remained open to speculation. Though experts have now weighed in.

"There is a high possibility that the object spotted this morning...on social media, is an object from outer space," said Saran Pshyachinda, Deputy Director of National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, in an interview with CNN. "It looks like an asteroid travelling to Earth and grazing through the air and it turned into a fireball."

In fact, Thailand's Astronomical Society said it was a rare phenomenon called a "bolide." This is, essentially, an exploding meteor, similar to the one that was seen over Chelyabinsk in Russia about two years ago.

The meteor entered Earth's atmosphere around 8:45 a.m. local time. It burnt up in a huge fireball after striking down from the sky. While it was large and bright, it was smaller than the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged 7,200 buildings in six cities in the southern Ural region. So far, there are no reports of any damage from Bangkok.

So why the burst of light? When debris hits Earth's atmosphere, it burns up. This is similar to what occurs with "shooting stars" or in meteor showers at night. What you're seeing is small bits of debris that are burning up after hitting Earth's atmosphere as our planet moves through space.

Want to see the fireball for yourself? You can check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.