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I was sure about translating "火の玉" as "fireball", but Google Translate
suggests another meaning - "falling star".

Can it really be translated like that? If it's true, then in what contexts?
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translation
"火の玉" = "falling star"?
A quick search on [jisho.org](http://jisho.org) has shown me:

> 火の玉 --> falling star; fireball

This definition suggest that it can mean either falling star or fireball.
You'll probably have to figure this out based on the context of the sentence.

Another good online Japanese to English dictionary to check out is
[WWJDIC](http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1C).
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2013-11-27T13:02:59.243
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Daijirin gives one of its meanings as a ball of light that looks like it's
flying through the night sky. As such, I think the meaning "fireball" comes
first, which then got attached to "falling stars" because of
visual/descriptive similarity. So, (unless a native speaker would like to
prove me wrong ;) ) it doesn't necessarily _mean_ "falling star" but is often
used to _refer_ to falling stars.

BTW, if you want to refer to shooting stars explicitly, you can use
[流れ星]{ながれぼし}.
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I hope it is no sin to post an anwer without using a dictionary.

火の玉, when it is used by us native speakers, refers to only one thing 90% of
the time --- the small light/fire that people claim to see flying around a
graveyard at night as a sign of the spirit of the dead.

Sometimes we use the word to refer to other things ---- a fireball, falling
star, bolide, you name it. 火の玉, as far as its literal meaning goes, only means
"ball of fire", therefore, one could use it to refer to something that looks
like a ball of fire.
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