If you thought you saw a massive flash in the sky over Greater Vancouver shortly after midnight, you weren’t imagining things.

Scientists at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre confirm there was a meteor seen streaking across the sky around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday.

Dr. Rosanna Tilbrook, an astronomer at the centre, says because this particular meteor was “super bright,” it is what experts refer to as a “fireball.”

“These are meteors that are brighter than the planet Venus in the sky, so they can be seen really, really far away,” Tilbook said.

She says they received over 100 reports from people who witnessed the meteor.

“We have sightings of this fireball across the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Washington State, Oregon.”

They have seen quite a few fireballs lately, Tilbrook says.

“We’re actually going through a period that NASA calls ‘fireball season,’ which is kind of early in the year in the Northern Hemisphere between about February and April.”

Interestingly, scientists aren’t exactly sure why fireball season happens.

“We think maybe it’s because the Earth is passing through more large debris at this time of year, so we see about a 10 to 30 per cent increase in fireballs,” she said.

Tilbrook says there have been a few seen over the Lower Mainland in the past few months.

An example of this occurred on the evening of March 3, when several British Columbians took to social media to share reports of a bright fireball in the night sky, along with a loud sonic boom.

For this latest fireball, Tilbrook says she isn’t sure just how big it was, but what is clear is that objects are falling through the Earth’s upper atmosphere “pretty regularly.”

“I think the stat is that over the course of a day, about 44 tonnes of material falls into Earth’s atmosphere from space,” she said.

“Now, some of that is really small.”

Sometimes, she says, if a very small rock or particle hits the atmosphere, you will see a “shooting star,” which is actually a meteor in the sky.

But if it is a larger piece of material, that’s when you can see a fireball.

“There’s more material to sort of burn up in the atmosphere and create that big kind of flame,” she said.

Experts aren’t able to say with certainty where these objects might make landfall.

“We can sort of predict the trajectory of where it might fall, but because fireballs often burst in the upper atmosphere, that means that the debris can be spread out over quite a wide range,” said Tilbrook.

“It’s not really guaranteed that we’re necessarily going to be able to find that debris. It actually helps if a fireball or a meteor makes landfall over a kind of wide, sort of flat and empty area.”

When the meteor actually hits the ground, it is then called a meteorite.

Many meteorites are found in Antarctica, she says.

“That’s just because Antarctica is very flat, open, there’s not many features, and it’s white,” she said.

“So a black meteorite is pretty easy to spot in Antarctica.”

Saskatchewan is also a good place to find meteorites or any other space debris, she says.

Meteors can cause quite a thrill for those who see them.

“Definitely exciting to spot in the sky,” Tilbrook said.

“Maybe a bit scary as well.”