Florida Fireball Sighted! Sunshine State Meteor Shower Creates Panic In Wake of Russian Meteor Explosion [PHOTO]

Airborne fireballs caused public concern along the Eastern Coastline of Florida from Miami to Jacksonville on Sunday, Feb. 17 at around 6pm.

According to NBC Miami, the Coast Guard received calls describing bright fireball-like objects in the sky. Experts have said that the fireballs were most likely caused by a meteor shower.

Thomas Webber, director of Museum of Science and History's Bryan-Gooding Planetarium explained that small meteorites are not unusual, but the reason why the fireball caused such a stir in Florida Sunday night is because it was bigger than most.

"This one wasn't grain-of-sand size, which is what most of them are," Webber told the Florida Times-Union. "When we get something a little bigger, that maybe has a silicate coating that ablates off as it travels through the atmosphere and takes some of the heat with it, they can appear much brighter and last a lot longer." 

The fireballs in Florida are considered small relative to other meteor events that have occurred worldwide this past week.

Last week in Russia, a meteor explosion injured about 1,000 people. Last Friday, a bright streak was spotted in the sky over Northern California. The streak was determined to be large asteroid passing by earth only 17,200 miles away.

Professionals are taking advantage of public's new awareness of celestial events to promote government-supported early warning systems in case of future destructive meteor events.

Professor of Theoretical Physics Michio Kaku of City College of NY told CBS News, "This could be a game changer. We need an insurance policy. Inevitably, we're going to get hit with a big one. Look at the moon: it's pockmarked...so we need to have an early warning system."