On June 26th, residents in the southeastern U.S. reported spotting a fireball descending from the sky. According to various reports, the source of the fireball was a meteor.
‘Fireball’ Shooting Across the Sky
The meteor was spotted during broad daylight hours and was reported to the American Meteor Society around 12:30 PM. The American Meteor Society received nearly 150 reports of the meteor around this time.
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It’s relatively rare for a very bright meteor, also known as a fireball, to be spotted on Earth – especially during the daytime. This is because objects need to be at least as bright as Venus to be visible to the naked eye, according to the American Meteor Society.
Most of the sightings were reported in Georgia and South Carolina, but a few were also reported in Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, and North Carolina. The National Weather Service also reported earthquakes during that time. The National Weather Service in Charleston also stated on Facebook that its satellite-based, lightning-detection system showed “a streak within cloud free sky” over Gasburg, Virginia, near the state’s border with North Carolina.
Bill Cooke, the chief of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told USA Today and People that the source of the fireball was a space rock approximately three feet in diameter, weighing over one ton. According to the local weather service office, the earthquake reports were also likely sonic booms or thunder-like sounds that occur when an aircraft, spacecraft, or space rock travels faster than the speed of sound.
The National Weather Service office, citing the Henry County Emergency Management agency, also reported that remnants of the meteor dropped through the roof of a home in Henry County, Georgia. A resident south of Atlanta reported that a “rock” fell through their roof, broke through the ceiling, and cracked their laminated flooring. Experts have connected the incident to the meteor sighting, as it was reported around the time of the sightings.
