On the evening of May 28, a rare fireball meteor phenomenon occurred over Maoming, Guangdong Province, and surrounding areas, drawing widespread attention.

At around 9:30 pm, a sudden, intense flash of light appeared in the night sky, momentarily illuminating the ground as if it were daylight. The brightness was so extreme that it startled people who witnessed it — even flocks of ducks in nearby farms were frightened and scattered in panic.

According to multiple surveillance camera recordings, the meteor had a light trail that shifted from orange-yellow to blue-green and was far brighter than a typical meteor.

Gou Lijun, an expert at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed it was a fireball meteor. A fireball meteor occurs when a relatively large meteoroid (approximately 1 metre in diameter) enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns intensely, reaching temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. It may also produce a thunder-like boom due to high-altitude airburst explosions.

Maoming’s Emergency Management Bureau conducted overnight inspections and reported no property damage. Authorities urged the public not to panic. Government departments and astronomical institutions continue to monitor the situation and have found no unusual impacts.

Preliminary estimates suggest the meteor's energy was equivalent to 500 to 2,000 tons of TNT, comparable to the fireball meteor event over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 2020. Its trajectory was from northeast to southwest, and it is believed to have either disintegrated completely or fallen into the South China Sea, as no ground impact or meteorite debris has been found.