Meteor spotted over Devon caught on camera

The fireball was caught on several cameras including this image from Newton Abbot

A bright ball of light caused by a meteor was captured on camera over Devon.

The UK Fireball Alliance said it was a "quite spectacular" sight.

The meteor was seen on Wednesday evening and landed in the sea off the coast of Cornwall.

A spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, no meteorites were recoverable as the fireball trajectory showed it to have both occurred and terminated over the ocean."

Fireball is the visual term for a meteor

They said: "It was quite spectacular and was captured by several of our fireball cameras in the surrounding area."

"A fireball and a meteor are actually the same thing," the spokesperson added.

"Fireball is more of a visual term. A meteoroid is when it is progressing through the earth's atmosphere. A meteorite is where it actually hits the earth."

• Asteroid - big lumps of rock floating in space

• Meteoroid - a smaller bit of rock that breaks off an asteroid

• Meteor - as a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere it burns up - like a shooting star - and is called a meteor

• Meteorite - any rock that survived burn up and lands on Earth

The fireball terminated off the Cornwall coast